A Thief In The Night
by x A Naughty Mouse x
Summary: When a series of high-profile robberies happens in Acmetropolis by a very skilled thief, the Loonatics are called in to help. But how does one of them know the thief? And is there something bigger going on?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Yeah, I know this show isn't shown anymore (;~;) and I know that there aren't many new authors for this show, but I liked it, and my friend who also writes on here (x A Ninny Mouse x) said that she liked the idea I came up with was really good, so I decided to post it. So… Here it is! **

**And, as stated before, I do have a connection with x A Ninny Mouse x, so there is no username stealing going on here. If you want more info on that, read either one of our profiles. And just so everybody knows, our work is VERY similar. We used to really annoy our teachers with that… Well, I did, anyways. So, if you find any major similarities, that's why.**

**One more thing. I'm not planning on doing any relationships in my stories. My friends who watched the show support the Acexi relationship, but I am completely neutral to it. I don't hate it, but I don't support it either. I'm not doing any OCxAnybody, either.**

**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except for my OC and this storyline.**

It had been a hectic week for the Loonatics. A lot came up with little time between each event, and they were looking forward to a weekend where they would hopefully be able to rest. Their hopes were shattered, however, by a call from Zadavia only hours after they got home.

"Sorry to call back so soon," Zadavia said, "but there's another problem."

"Why can't the police handle _anything_ on their own this week?" Duck asked in exasperation.

"Oh, cut them some slack, Duck," Lexi said. "They just had huge layoffs, and a lot of above average criminals have been popping up lately."

"That doesn't mean they have to come crying to us every single time something comes up..." Duck muttered under his breath. Lexi glared at him.

"Anyways," Zadavia began, regaining everyone's attention. "The police chief called and asked you to take a look at something. There has been a string of high-profile robberies in Acmetropolis the past few weeks, but nothing even relatively helpful was found at any of the crime scenes until now."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Duck interjected. "You're saying the chief wants us to look at a _robbery_? We deal with super villains, not cat burglars!"

"I know that, and I wouldn't even bother telling you about it if I thought it was far below your level," Zadavia explained calmly. She was desperately trying not to blow up at Duck, and was so far doing a very good job of it. "However, the chief told me in advance about what they found, and I think you all should at least take a look at it. You can decide whether you want to take the case or not afterwards. Zadavia out."

Her image faded away, and the Loonatics stood up.

"Well, if Zadavia wants us to take a look at it, I think we should," Ace stated. "Let's jet!"

The crime scene was in an upscale residential area barely inside the Acmetropolis city limits. The streets were lined with houses that costed $15 million each on a _bad_ day, and the residents matched the stereotype of people in the area. They were snobs, stuck-up, and didn't care about anything that didn't affect them. However, they were crowded around the yellow tape surrounding the crime scene, making it difficult for the Loonatics to get to the scene once they arrived.

After a bit of pushing and shoving, the Loonatics finally were able to get inside the yellow tape and speak to a police officer.

"What happened here, doc?" Ace asked the officer.

"Another robbery. There have been a lot of them lately, and we now think it's the same person doing them, but this is the first one that we've gotten any evidence from," the officer explained. "This person is very efficient."

"What was taken?" Tech asked.

"A _very_ expensive piece of art; a platinum and cobalt statuette. It's always art or jewelry with this thief... Anyways, there's someone you all should speak to. It's what he's got to say that'll explain why we'd like your help with this. Follow me." The officer started walking towards an assembly of squad cars and ambulances, and the Loonatics surveyed the scene as they followed him.

The house was a large, three-story home in the middle of the block. It had a tall, wrought-iron gate, a few windows, and a door that looked broken into.

"Did the thief come in through the door?" Tech asked.

"No, we broke it down to get in," the officer replied. "There were no signs of forced entry. No fingerprints anywhere, either."

The officer stopped when he reached an ambulance with the back doors open and a young, built, Hispanic man sitting inside. He was in an all black outfit, and he was holding an icepack to his head.

"Loonatics, this is Julio Garcia," the officer stated. "He's a guard that was in the house at the time of the break in."

"You're going to catch that thief?" Garcia asked. "I wish you luck; you'll need it."

"What do you mean?" Lexi asked.

"This thief... She's not like other thieves. We've had other attempted thefts here by average petty thieves and more experienced thieves alike, but this one was way out of their league."

"'She'? You saw her?" Tech asked.

"A silhouette, but I saw enough to know that she was a woman and an anthro."

"How can you know if it was an anthro if you didn't see her?" Duck asked skeptically.

"Human silhouettes don't have pointy ears and tails."

"Oh..."

"What do you mean when you say that she was out of their league?" Ace asked.

"This one... Well, the others either broke in or tried sneaking in, emphasis on _tired_. We have security systems, cameras, motion sensors, dogs, you name it. No one has ever been able to get past all of them. This one did, though, and knocked out any guards she met along the way. Three other guards, along with myself, were in the same room as the statue she took when she got there. She knocked out two of us before we even knew she was there, like some kind of ninja. The other guy and I fought back, but she was very skilled."

"So you two big guards were beaten up by some _girl_?" Duck asked in disbelief, and a little teasingly. Lexi elbowed him in the ribs, _hard_.

"You're talking about the person who did _this_," Garcia retorted as he lifted the icepack off of his head. The underside of the icepack was covered in blood from a cut on his head. It was wide, but not deep. "And I got lucky... Somehow I managed to stay awake to call 911. At least, I _think_ I did…"

"Thanks, doc," Ace said. "We'll find you if we have any more questions."

The Loonatics and the officer walked away towards the house.

"Were any of the guards seriously injured?" Tech asked the officer.

"No; they were all beaten up just enough to knock them out. Well, except for Garcia... The weird thing is that when we found Garcia, he was barely conscious, a little out of it, and he had a rag wrapped around his head. The EMT's said that it was like medical-style bandaging. On top of that, the 911 operator who took the call about the robbery said that the voice didn't sound Hispanic over the phone. It was a bad connection with Mr. Garcia's cell phone, so it could just be confusion over static."

"Who could've done that?" Lexi asked.

"The only person it could've been is the thief. We don't know what to think of that, either," the officer admitted.

"What-kind-of-proffesional-theif-stays-to-help-their-only-witness-and-possibly-call-911?" Rev asked skeptically.

"Emphasis on _only. _Like I said earlier, we don't have anything else on this person other than what Mr. Garcia told us," the officer explained. "The possible fact that she may have called 911, though… I'm not a profiler or anything, but I think she did it to help Mr. Garcia. Why she wanted to do it is beyond me."

"Guys, I think we're taking this case," Ace stated. Everyone nodded in agreement, except for Duck.

No one noticed the figure crouching on a rooftop across the street.

**A/N: Like it? Hate it? Tell me in a review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: My older sister is now controlling her house with her totally insane friend… B( …And I just succeeded in scaring the crap out of them! I'm going to post this before they kill me…**

**Poll time! Okay, so did anyone notice that I didn't have Slam speak at all in the last chapter? It's because I'm not sure how to do his speech. I've seen it done two different ways: organized chaos (e.g. what my friend Yoshi does,) and the equivalent of having a cat type out his speech. I'm just wondering which way you, my readers, prefer, and that's what I'll do.**

**Review responses!**

**Papercut: Thank you! And as for your guess... You'll just have to wait and see! XD**

**Luna246: Thank you! And as for what Ninny said... I DENY EVERYTHING!**

**And Yoshi... Shut up! You know I procrastinate! I can't put up two chapters a week like some people! =(  
>...You see, this is why we hang with Sabelle; she keeps us from killing each other. If we didn't, one or both of us would be long dead.<strong>

_**?'s POV**_

It was going to be an easy job.

It was 8:00, and I was standing across the street from the house, leaning on a wall, waiting to make my move. I had been watching it for a few days to figure out who was where when, and I figured out that during that time, the owner of the house, a Ms. Hawthorne, and almost all of her security guards left for who-cared-where and didn't come back for a few hours. That meant I just had to break in, deal with the four-or-so guards left, take what I was after, and leave before the cops showed up. Easy.

I watched as the garage door opened, and a black SUV pulled out, followed by a Bentley, and then another SUV. Hawthorne only traveled like that to say to everyone, 'Hey, I have money, and I'm more important than you!' It annoyed me.

I waited a few minutes to make sure they were gone, and then I crossed the street. The front and back of the house were monitored by security cameras, but the sides were clear from any security apart from spying neighbors. There weren't any windows or doors on the sides of the house in question, and it was one flat wall from the ground to the roof, making entry seemingly impossible for the common crook. I wasn't an average, everyday thief, though.

I discreetly made my way to a side of the house, and looked up. There were four stories to the house, not counting the basement, so it was a long way up. It was more of a mansion than a house, but I didn't care about what it looked like from the outside; it was what was inside that I cared about. I saw a chimney sticking up on the roof, and I knew I had found my way in.

I was wearing what looked like a black watch, but it didn't tell time; it was a grappling hook launcher. It shot what looked like a pin out of one end, and the pin opened up into a hook that could grab onto almost any surface with an edge that wouldn't crumble. The pin was connected to a very thin wire that looked as if it would break if any weight was put on it, but in reality it could hold a few hundred pounds. A mechanism inside the watch allowed it to pull the user up, or let them go down, at the push of a button. It was designed to be user friendly.

I pointed my wrist and pushed the button that shot the pin. It flew out, trailing the wire, and fell into the chimney. The wire started retracting back into the watch as the pin opened into the hook. It caught on the edge of the chimney, and I gave a test tug when the wire was taught. It held, so I pushed the button on the watch that activated the mechanism and started my ascent to the roof. It was pretty fast because of how light I was, so I was only hanging there for about 10 seconds before climbing onto the roof.

I walked up to the chimney, pulled out the hook, closed the pin, and let the watch fully retract the wire and pin. I had replacements, but I liked saving those whenever I could.

I had looked at the roof from a neighboring house a few days earlier, and I saw that there was a skylight that was always open if the weather was clear. I walked up to it, and jumped in. It was a long fall to the floor, but I always landed on my feet.

_Break in. Check._

What I was after was in Ms. Hawthorne's bedroom, which was on the second floor. I would try to avoid the remaining guards as best as I could, but I wasn't expecting to get away without getting into a fight. It's not that I couldn't fight back; I was actually pretty good. I just tried to avoid hurting those who weren't involved in the big scheme of things. Those who were involved were another story, but I hardly ever met up with any of those people on a theft job. When I did, though, it never ended well. Well, for _them_, anyways.

I silently made my way down the hall and peered around the corner. I saw the staircase I was looking for, but I also saw something I wasn't looking for; there was a guard standing in front of the entrance. There was no other way downstairs, so I was going to have to deal with him.

I turned around and saw a bowl sitting on a table. There were decorative balls made of sticks woven together sitting in the bowl, and they would do nicely for a distraction.

I grabbed two of them and walked back to the corner. I threw one directly at the guard to get his attention, and had to hold in laughter when he yelped, jumped about three feet off the ground, pulled out a flashlight, and started nervously looking around. I threw the other ball down the hall in the opposite direction from the guard, and he heard it. He started walking down the hall, and when he passed me, I swung my arm as hard as I could and hit him in the back of the head. He slumped to the floor, out cold.

I made my way down the stairs to the second floor. Hawthorne's room was on the other end of the floor, so I had a lot of ground to cover.

I silently slinked down the halls, making my way towards Hawthorne's room. There was a living room right outside the bedrooms, and I heard the TV playing. I peered around the corner and saw two heads watching the screen over the back of the couch. They were speaking to each other in Italian, and I could understand them perfectly, but I didn't recognize the voices, and all they were talking about was some sports game from a few days ago. I knew almost everyone who was involved by appearance and voice, so I knew they weren't involved. I planned on only knocking them out; there was no reason to do anything more to them.

I had four pouches clipped on my belt, and I reached into one and pulled out a small sphere. I twisted it, threw it at the men, shut my eyes, and covered my ears. It was a flash bang, and it caused mass confusion in the next room when it went off. I heard the men yell, and I charged into the room.

They were still blinded from the light, and they were stumbling around. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out a small metal rod. There was a button on it and, when pushed, it extended the rod into a full-length fighting stick. I hardly ever used it, but I didn't want to use my regular weapons against anyone who wasn't involved. I usually used a pair of katanas, and I was deadly-good with them.

I rushed the guards, and as I came up to the first one, his vision started clearing, and he began wildly throwing punches in my general direction. He suddenly reached out to grab me, but I used my stick like a pole vault and flipped over him. I quickly turned around and swung my stick like a baseball bat at the back of his head. He hit the floor with a satisfying thud a second later.

I didn't notice the other guard sneak up behind me until he grabbed my stick and wrenched it out of my hand. He threw it across the room and started approaching me. He was about 3 times my size, so I wasn't about to take him on hand-to-hand. Instead, when he lunged for me, I hit the deck and slid between his legs. I came up in front of a coffee table, and I grabbed whatever I could off of it and threw it at him.

He turned around just as a heavy vase I threw hit him in the face. He stumbled, so I ran and drop-kicked him in the chest. He fell, hit his head against a side table, and didn't get up again.

_Take care of the guards. Check._

"That was easier than I thought it would be," I muttered to myself as I retrieved my stick. I pushed the button, making it shorter again, and put it back in my pocket. I walked up to the bedroom, and opened the door.

There wasn't a lot in there; a queen size bed, a large dresser with a mirror next to the bed, and a bit of floor space before hitting a wall lined with mirrors.

_I guess Hawthorne likes looking at herself..._

I walked up to the dresser, and pulled a large, heavy box on it closer to me. It was locked, but that wasn't going to stop me. I pulled a throwing knife out of one of the pouches on my belt, jammed it into the lock, and hit the back end of it with my hand like a nail. The lock broke, and I put the knife back into the pouch as I opened the box.

There was a whole mess of fine jewelry inside. It consisted of everything from diamond earrings to sapphire broaches. There was probably more than $750,000 of jewels in there, but I was only interested in one piece that was resting right on top of the pile. I gingerly picked it up to examine it.

It was a thick choker necklace made of gold with an intricate wave pattern inlay of lapis lazuli. A large, aquamarine stone was hanging from the front.  
><em><br>Take what I was after. Check._

As I was examining it, I heard quiet, ragged breathing coming from behind me. I turned around, and thought I saw someone else, but it was only my reflection in the mirrored wall. I caught something moving out of the corner of my eye;_ the bed sheets._

I walked over to where I saw the movement, and the breathing stopped. I bent down and pulled the covers up, revealing a little boy hiding under the bed.

_Shit. I forgot Hawthorne had a son._

"...Are ya gonna kill me?" he asked after a moment, obviously terrified of me.

"...No," I replied after a moment. He wasn't involved, so I had no reason to hurt him. I didn't want to, either; I'd never be able to sleep again if I hurt a kid. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Are ya gonna take my mom's jewelry?"

"Just this," I replied, showing him the necklace.

"Mom hates that necklace."

"Why does she have it, then?"

"I don't know; she just said she was holding it for a friend or something. She got it in the mail with a letter. It was really weird."

"Did you already call the cops?"

"No..." I could tell he was still scared. "Are Leo and George going to be okay?" I raised my eyebrow; I had no idea who those people were. "The two guys in the other room. They take care of me when Mom's out."

"They'll be fine," I replied reassuringly. I wasn't lying; the one who hit the table might have had a concussion, but it wasn't anything more serious than that. "Why don't you go back to your room and wait there until the police arrive?"

"Okay," the kid replied as he scrambled out from under the bed. I stood up, and started walking out. "Wait!" I turned back to him again just as I was about to exit the room. "Who are you?"

"Now what would be the fun in telling you that?" I asked. "It takes away the mystery, don't ya think?"

I made my way out of the house, and I was far away from the scene when the police finally showed up.

_Leave. Check._

**A/N: Thief's POV! How exciting! So, anyways, thanks for the reviews, and I have Easter Break starting Thursday, so I'll probably get another chapter up during that time. And to clear up any confusion… If I ever call someone Yoshi, that's Ninny Mouse. It's her nickname in real life. Anyways, R&R!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: A couple days later than I imagined, but I was busy this weekend, so I ran out of time to post this. Cut me some slack; I'm lazy! Anyways…**

**Luna 246: Yeah, she asked me **_**something,**_** but I'm afraid I'm not much help. DX Sorry! And that's just my reflexive response for when I hear someone say something about me… It's usually not very nice. /:**

The Loonatics arrived at the scene at the same time as the police. The chief didn't seem to be there that time, either, but there were more than enough policemen and EMT's to make up for it. The Loonatics found the same cop they talked to before and asked him about what happened.

"What's the story, doc?" Ace asked.

"Almost exactly the same as last time," the tired looking officer replied. "No sign of a break in, guards knocked out, took jewelry, left a witness... It's actually a little odd this time around. Follow me, I'll show you what I mean."

The cop walked off into the crowd of officers, squad cars, and ambulances. He stopped when he reached an ambulance with one big, built man holding a small boy in his lap. Another similar looking man was unconscious on a stretcher in the ambulance.

"Meet Leo Purticelli and Jeff Hawthorne," the cop said. "They are two of the four people who were in the house."

"Were you able to see who the thief was?" Ace asked Leo, who shook his head in response.

"It was dark, and she had a flash bang. I barely saw her coming, and I was out cold before I could get a look at her. George might've, though," he said as he gestured to the guy on the stretcher. "She got him after me. Jeffy here, though, is another story."

Everyone turned their eyes to the kid, who was still sitting in Leo's lap. He was playing a video game on a handheld device, but paused it and looked up when he realized everyone was looking at him. He didn't seem scared at all; he seemed mildly interested in the whole situation. Lexi bent down on one knee to talk to him.

"Hey there, Jeff," she said. Jeff smiled at her. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, yeah, she didn't hurt me," the kid replied. "She didn't even touch me!"

"Did she say why?" That was the question on everyone's mind; why she never badly injured anyone.

"No, she didn't."

"Did you see what she took?"

"Yeah. She broke into my mom's jewelry case, but she only took one thing from inside. It was a shiny gold and blue necklace, with a big rock hanging from it. My mom never liked it, so I don't think she'll miss it too much."

"Did you see what she looked like?" Ace asked, bending down next to Lexi.

"Hmm... It was pretty dark... I think... She was tall, and... She looked like a cat!" the kid exclaimed after a moment.

"A cat?" Tech repeated. "Well, that's something, I guess..."

"Aww, is the doggy-woggy afraid of a little kitty cat?" Duck asked mockingly. Jeff laughed, and Tech glared at him.

Just then, a Bentley pulled up as close to the scene as possible, closely followed by a couple of black SUV's. A flustered looking woman burst out of the Bentley, saw Jeff and Leo, and started running as fast as she could to them.

She was a little on the heavy side, and in an all purple pantsuit outfit and heels that probably added half a foot or more to her short frame. He had short, blonde hair, and had on more expensive jewelry than all that can be held in a single jewelry store.

"Mommy!" Jeff shouted when he saw the woman.

"Oh, yes, hello, Jeffery," the woman said dismissively to her son. She all but ignored him completely as she asked Leo, "What did they take?"

The Loonatics and police officer were shocked by this complete ignorance for her son. Most parents wouldn't care about what was taken if their child was inside, but she seemed to barely notice his existence. Leo acted like this was a common, day-to-day occurrence, but Jeff looked a little disheartened.

"The thief broke into your jewelry case," Leo stated. Ms. Hawthorne looked like someone had just told her that her dog died, which, in reality, she probably wouldn't have cared about, either. "She only took one piece, though."

Hawthorne didn't look devastated anymore, but she didn't seem happy, either. Then a thought dawned on her. "'She?'" she quoted. "You know who it is?"

"We have a vague description," the officer explained.

"Female-anthro-tall-cat-like," Rev listed, glancing at Jeff, who smiled back. "Know-anyone-like-that?"

"No, I don't," Hawthorne replied dismissively. "What did she take?"

"She took that necklace that you don't like," Jeff replied. Hawthorne looked startled from hearing his voice as if she forgot he was there.

"You mean the one I got in the mail a few weeks ago?" Jeff nodded, and Hawthorne looked terrified for a moment, caught herself, and went to a mild state of shock instead.

"Something wrong?" Lexi asked.

"I was... Holding that for a friend," Hawthorne said as she stared at the ground. "H- she, won't be happy to hear that it's gone... Excuse me, I need to make a call."

She walked off, still in a daze, as the others wondered what got her so spooked.

_**?'s POV  
><strong>_  
>Yes, coming back to the scene so quickly probably wasn't my best move, but I knew all about how the police worked, and based on my knowledge, I knew I would have no problems getting away if I was caught, which wouldn't happen, either. However, I knew little to nothing about the Loonatics, and I never liked not knowing who I was up against. I didn't even know all of their <em>names<em>. The police I could handle, but I really needed to figure out just how good the Loonatics were.

From where I was standing in the crowd of interested bystanders, I could see a couple of the Loonatics clearly, but most of them were either in a place where I couldn't see them well or not there at all. I had a basic knowledge of them, but in my business, the devil was in the details. I could at least watch what was going on from where I was without arousing suspicion.

I was wearing a long, black trench coat to cover my tail, which would have stuck out, but it was cold, and I wasn't the only person wearing one. I was also wearing a wide-brimmed black hat and sunglasses to hide my face and ears. The only time I hated being an anthro was when I was trying to blend in; I managed, but it wasn't easy.

I was standing towards the back of the crowd, but I had a clear view of what was going on. I was taller than most of the people in the crowd (but not so tall as to stand out even more than I already did,) so I could see over everyone, and my eyesight was considerably better than an average person's, so I could see everything clearly. Most of the Loonatics were standing around an ambulance (two of them had gone into the house,) and the kid was sitting in the lap of the first guard I had knocked out while the guard I had sent into the table was still unconscious in the ambulance. Hawthorne was talking on her cell phone a ways away, and she looked white as a sheet. I knew who she was talking to even just by looking at her terrified expression.

I walked away from the crowd, and once I was far enough away, I pulled a cell phone out of my pocket and dialed a number. Most people in my position wouldn't carry cell phones, but I knew a guy who made his own cellular system that was completely off the grid, meaning that my phone was untraceable, and my calls were un-tappable. This was the guy I was calling.

"What's my middle name?" a male voice replied from the other end of the line. We never said 'Hello.'

"You don't _have_ a middle name, Jason," I replied. No, Jason was not his real name, and he actually did have a middle name. It was our code to make sure that he was really talking to _me_. "Where are you?"

"Over the river, through the woods, somewhere over the rainbow, it's anybody's guess, Jill," he replied. That was our code to let me know I was talking to _him_, and Jill wasn't even close to my name. We were very paranoid people, not that we didn't have our excuses. "What do you need?"

We were talking out of code now. I filled him in on everything that I had gotten done since I got to Acmetropolis, and everything that had happened.

"Jeez, you're running out of time," he reminded me after I had finished. "You've still got a lot of places to hit, and not a lot of time to do it!"

"There's no way I'm going to be able to hit them all, so just give me the highest priority targets," I told him. I could hear a keyboard clacking in the background. My phone beeped to tell me I had received a message.

"Consider it done," he said smugly. "Anything else I can do for you?"

"Yeah; get me everything you've got on the Loonatics," I ordered. "Hack sites if you need to. If it's out there and relevant, I want it."

"Give me a few hours, and you'll have everything you need," he assured me. He was silent for a moment before saying, "I'm getting another call."

"Tell them I say 'hi!'" I said as I hung up; he only ever got calls from a select few people, and I knew and was friends with all of them. I continued walking down the street, and as I put my phone away, I fingered the necklace in my pocket.

_If only more than a handful of people knew_ _what was _really_ going on… _I thought wistfully. Then I shoved the thought to the back of my head. The fact of the matter was that no one else outside our little group knew what was really going on, other than the people we were working against, and at that time, there was nothing we could do about it, and there probably wouldn't be anything we could do about it in the near future. I always found it bad to wish for impossible dreams, but I couldn't help but continue hoping for the day when all of this would be over.

**A/N: It just got interesting, didn't it? XD R&R!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Short, I know, and kind of late, I also know, but I have a very good excuse! I broke my foot in band class. Needless to say, I will no longer be sitting next to Tommy, the tuba player who has no idea how to hold said instrument in a way such that it doesn't fall onto the floor and destroy people's feet. (Legit, that's how it happened. No one at the hospital believed it.) And then my server completely screwed this up, so I had to redo almost all of this. DX As it is, the only time I could find time to post this was right now, which is in the middle of English class. (shhh!)  
><strong>

**Spudwick13: Thanks!**

**Luna 246: Glad you think so!**

**acosta perez jose ramiro: Thanks! I intend to!**

_**?'s POV**_

I received all of the information on the Loonatics from my friend about four hours later. I wasn't doing anything at the time, so I found a nice spot on top of a roof where no one could see me and started reading.

I was shocked at how much I didn't know about the Loonatics. It was just sloppy to know so little about who you're dealing with, especially when it came to such a formidable group. It turned out that I didn't even know what all of their powers were!

For example, I had no idea one of them had super hearing. That could've really screwed me up if they got to a place I was robbing before I left. Then another one had magnetism, which was also a problem; all of my weapons were made of metal. Another one could teleport, which wasn't an immediate crisis, but it still surprised me. I also had no idea that one of them used a special Freleng-made sword that I was currently having my friend look into.

Then there was one that looked very familiar. He looked exactly like an old friend of mine, but there was no way it was him. First off, his name was different, and second off, there was just _no_ _way_ it was him. The guy I knew was the most helpless person alive; _not_a super hero.

...Still, the likeness was uncanny, and it was going to bug me in the future. But, I was going to have to work past it. I had a lot of work to do, and not a lot of time to do it.

Five days had passed since the Hawthorne robbery, and three more robberies had taken place since then. Two were high-end jewelry stores, and the last one was an art-dealer's home. There were no witnesses at any of the scenes, no evidence, and no sign of a break in. The police were starting to lose hope of ever catching the thief, until one evening after the third robbery, Tech had a breakthrough.

He had called everyone down to the lab, pulled up a series of calculations on a large, wall-mounted screen, and began explaining what he found.

"There's a pattern to the robberies," he stated excitedly. "The items that were taken all have one or two characteristics in common, along with the locations they were taken from. Long story short, using that information, I was able to predict items that might be the thief's next target."

"That's great, Tech!" Lexi exclaimed.

"Unfortunately, the good news stops there," Tech stated. "It's a pretty long list, and based on the thief's schedule, there should be another robbery tonight."

"Then give us the three most likely targets," Ace ordered. "We'll split up into teams of two and guard them. Hopefully, one of us will find the thief."

Tech printed out a sheet of paper listing the three most likely targets. The first was an apartment belonging to a successful art dealer, the second was a large antique shop downtown, and the third was a rich, old woman's house. Ace and Lexi took the apartment, Tech and Rev took the shop, and Slam and Duck took the old woman's house.

They were at their respective locations for about three hours before receiving a call from Zadavia telling them where the actual theft occurred. It was at the Museum of Natural History, and an ancient Egyptian ornament was stolen after being on display for a total of two days. The Loonatics didn't even bother going to the crime scene; they knew what the police would find, and it wasn't much. If they actually _did_find something important, they would hear about it later.

Tech and Rev were the first ones back to HQ, and Tech immediately went into the lab. Rev waited around for the others, and Lexi and Ace arrived a few minutes later. They had to wait almost 45 minutes for Duck and Slam, though.

"What kept you two?" Lexi asked as they walked in. "It's not like you have to deal with traffic while riding a jetpack."

"_Someone_decided to stop for a snack," Duck replied sourly, glaring at Slam, who smiled back in response.

"Where's Tech?" Ace asked, noticing the coyote's absence.

"He's-in-the-lab-said-something-about-working-on-finding-another-pattern-or-something-he-didn't-seem-very-happy," Rev said.

"Let's go see what he's up to," Ace said.

They found Tech pouring over his computer, making new calculations.

"I don't get it," Tech said as he worked. "This completely throws off my calculations! The Natural History Museum was never on my radar, and that ornament that was stolen doesn't fit in with anything at all!"

"Relax, Tech," Duck said. "You'll give yourself an aneurism!" Tech growled at him.

"Can't you just make new calculations with the new information?" Lexi asked.

"I can, it'll just take time," Tech replied. "That's what I'm working on now. Give me a few days."

A few days (and two more robberies) later, Tech came up with a new list of possible targets. This time, Mr. Leghorn's house, the Acmetropolis National Bank, and the Acmetropolis Art Museum were on the list. Tech and Ace took Leghorn's house, Slam and Rev took the bank, and Lexi and Duck took the museum.

This time, one group found what they were looking for.

**A/N: Anyone have any guesses on who the thief knows? I'll give a cookie to anyone who guesses correctly! It will be revealed in the next chapter, which will be up… When it gets up. In case anyone hasn't noticed, I update very irregularly, so chapters will just kind of get up when they get up. Anyways, R&R!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Sorry this is so late, but my wifi was out for 2 days straight, and then my keyboard stopped working… And to top it all off, the website wouldn't let me log in! DX It's been a pretty hectic, crappy week for me… Anyways… Cookie awards and review responses will be at the end of the chapter!**

The moon was full that night, and it was shining bright enough for Lexi and Duck to patrol the art museum without flashlights. There were 7 pieces on display that fit the bill of things that the thief would have been interested in, and they were all in different areas of the museum, so they were just walking around the whole museum over and over again, looking for any sign of the thief.

"This is _pointless_!" Duck exclaimed after the fourth full walk around the museum. "We'll never find anything at this rate!"

"Duck, calm down," Lexi replied in an exasperated tone. "We won't find anything with you complaining loud enough to wake the dead."

"But that's just it! Odds are; we _won't_ find anything! There were dozens of places the thief could hit on Tech's list, and we're only covering _three_!"

Lexi suddenly stopped and looked down a hallway adjacent to the one they were walking down. Duck stopped, too, and also looked down the hallway.

"There's nothing down there," he stated.

"Duck, shush!" Lexi ordered, listening closely so that her eyes lit up and sent pink rings up her ears.

"So you can hear the thief that's _not_ there?" Duck asked mockingly.

"Duck, _shut_ _it_," Lexi ordered forcefully. Duck finally got the message and kept quiet for a few moments while Lexi listened. "...I think I hear footsteps coming from down there."

"You _think_?"

"It could be nothing, but I want to check it out," Lexi said as she started down the hallway. Duck followed, and they eventually found themselves in a large room that was two stories from floor to ceiling and had a perimeter walkway around the wall where the second floor would be. There was a stairway in one corner of the room leading up to the walkway, and there were a total of six doors leading in and out of the room, along with the possible entrance and exit from the large, floor-to-ceiling arched windows that ran all along one wall. Photos and paintings covered every other available inch of wall space, and there were roped-off stands in the middle of the room with small sculptures resting on top. Other, larger sculptures lined the walls.

"See? There's no one here," Duck stated after they looked around.

"I'm not too sure..." Lexi began. Something didn't feel right to her, even though she wasn't hearing anything. "I think we should call the others."

"Why? There's _nothing_ here! This is just a huge waste of time..."

"Something isn't right... I'm going to call in the others."

Right as she said that, something landed in front of them and exploded in a bright, loud flash. They were both temporarily blinded and deafened, though Lexi's ears didn't stop ringing for a long time, and neither of them saw the figure jump from the walkway above them and land cleanly in front of them.

The figure dashed forward and karate-kicked Duck in the chest, winding him and sending him flying backward into the hallway. Lexi's vision had cleared enough by then, and she saw another kick coming for her and jumped back to avoid it. She jumped back again to avoid an oncoming jab, and retaliated by trying to kick the figure, who ducked to avoid it, and knocked Lexi off of her feet with a leg-sweep. Lexi rolled away and got back on her feet just as the figure back flipped back onto hers.

The figure was standing in front of the window with her back to it, so Lexi could see a silhouette in the light. She was definitely female, and pretty tall. She was wearing a jacket, along with what looked like a few pouches around her waist. She also had short, pointy ears, similar to those of a cat. Lexi knew who she was right away.

_The thief._

She stood still, waiting for Lexi to make the first move. Lexi knew that she would stand a much better chance if Duck was there, so she decided to stall for time, desperately hoping that the first hit he received didn't knock him out.

"Who are you?" Lexi asked the thief.

"Now why on Earth would I tell you that?" the thief asked snidely.

"Why are you doing this?" Lexi asked, ignoring the comment.

"I have my reasons," the thief answered cryptically, with a hint of playfulness in her voice. Her confidence put Lexi off a bit. Most criminals weren't so confident when faced with the authorities, much less the local super heroes.

"Like what? Personal gain? Put a little money in your pocket?" Lexi asked.

The thief paused a moment before continuing. "...Things aren't always as they appear."

"What are you, a fortune cookie?" Lexi asked sarcastically. The thief laughed in response.

At that point, Lexi was thinking that Duck wasn't going to be any help, so she was nonchalantly reaching for her wrist communicator. If she could just turn it on, then the other Loonatics would be able to overhear their conversation and guess what was going on. The fact that it was pretty dark made Lexi think that she could do it easily without being seen.

"Who do you work for?" Lexi asked. Based on the thief's earlier answer, Lexi guessed she wasn't in it for herself.

"It's complicated," the thief replied. By that point, Lexi had almost reached her communicator.

Suddenly, the thief reached into one of the pouches on her belt and threw something at Lexi. She did it all in less than a second, so Lexi didn't have time to react until it was too late. She looked down nervously, afraid of what she would see, but relaxed a little when she saw that all that was hit was her communicator. A shuriken was sticking out of it, and it was definitely trashed.

"Unlike you, I can see perfectly in the dark," the thief stated. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I don't have all night."

The thief started walking towards some of the exhibits, and Lexi acted right away. She shot a brain blast at her, but the thief was expecting it. She pulled some kind of sword seemingly out of nowhere, turned around, and deflected Lexi's brain blast off of the blade. It flew towards the ceiling, and hit a light fixture above Lexi's head. It fell and narrowly missed her as she did a back flip to get out of the way.

The thief had run towards some of the exhibits in the middle of the room during the distraction, but before she could get to the one she wanted, something appeared in front of her and threw something at her. It hit her in the face, and she cried out in surprise and stumbled backward as she cleared her eyes.

"That's what you get for messing with _Danger_ _Duck_!" Duck yelled triumphantly.

Lexi ran over to him. "Duck, call the others!"

"I would if I could, but I landed on my communicator, and it's, uh...busted," Duck admitted, showing Lexi his trashed communicator.

"Well, at least you got her," Lexi said, looking back at the thief.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure that was a tar egg," Duck stated nervously.

"Alright, I'll admit; I did _not_ see that coming," the thief stated when she could finally see again. "But that's still not going to stop me."

"Are you sure about that?" Duck asked. "It's two against one here."

"Maybe," the thief replied, another sword appearing out of nowhere, "but you two are outmatched."

"We'll see about that," Lexi replied as she ran towards the thief. She sliced at Lexi when she got close enough, but Lexi sidestepped to avoid it and aimed a punch at the thief, who back flipped to avoid it. Duck anticipated where she would land, and threw an egg at her. Lexi didn't see this, and as she ran forward at the thief again, the thief did a quick back step, and Duck's egg hit Lexi square in the face.

"Duck!" Lexi yelled. Lucky for her, it was one of the odd orange juice eggs, so she was alright. While she was still recovering from getting hit by the egg, though, the thief drop-kicked her in the chest and sent her flying into an exhibit.

Duck, meanwhile, threw two more eggs at the thief, who tried blocking them with her swords. The first was a water egg, and all it did was make the thief wet when she sliced it open. The second, however, exploded on impact, and sent the thief flying backward while losing her swords. She hit the ground, rolled, and got back on her feet as if nothing had happened. She was pulled another shuriken out of her pouch, and was about to throw it, when a pink blast knocked it out of her hand. She turned just in time to see Lexi coming, but not in enough time to move out of the way. Lexi kicked her hard in the chest, and she went flying backward. She back on her feet a moment later, but in that time, Duck and Lexi had moved so they were standing on either side of her.

"Not very outmatched if you ask me," Lexi said from behind the thief, who turned to see that she had nowhere to go. They both simultaneously started running at the thief.

"I still have a few tricks up my sleeve," the thief muttered so that only Lexi could hear. She pointed her arm straight up in the air, there was a soft clicking sound, and the thief suddenly shot straight up in the air...right as Duck and Lexi would have reached her. They ran into each other with a loud smack and fell in a crumpled heap to the floor.

The thief landed cleanly a few feet away and took a throwing knife out of one of her pouches. "Sorry to fight and run, but you know how it goes."

Duck and Lexi scrambled to their feet and looked at the thief. She was standing in a patch of light, and based on where she was standing, Lexi could still only see a silhouette. Duck, on the other hand, could see the thief clear as day where he was standing, and he was so shocked at what he saw, he lost his words for a moment.

Right as the thief moved to throw the knife, Duck found his voice again. There were a lot of things he could have said at that point, but in the end, only one word came out.

"_Kitty_?"

__

_**?'s POV**_

That word, that _one_ word, confirmed my earlier suspicions. Danger Duck was who I thought he was, though he did change his name and the guy I knew didn't fit the superhero profile at all, but people change.

Thankfully, I wasn't aiming for either of them, and I didn't falter as the knife left my hand, even though I was shocked at this new development. I was aiming for a large sculpture behind them. It looked like a 15 foot tall gumball-machine-like cylinder with red caps at the top and bottom and a glass cylinder in the middle containing thousands and thousands of multi-colored marbles. My knife hit the glass, it shattered, and before they had a chance to react, the two Loonatics were buried under a mountain of marbles.

Knowing that a good friend of mine was buried under there made me want to help get him out, but I still had a job to do, and breaking that had set off every silent alarm in the museum. They would get help soon enough.

I ran back to the small exhibits on the floor and grabbed the one I was after. If what I had heard was true, and the Loonatics really had come up with some sort of pattern to what I was taking, which would be purely coincidental, then this item would definitely throw them off. I grabbed my katanas before exiting the museum. I wanted to hang around and make sure that the two I buried were alright, but I wasn't going to risk it that time. I had left the area long before the police arrived.

**A/N: Time for review responses and cookie awards!**

**x A Ninny Mouse x: NO! No cookie for you! I already told you what happens, you cheater! …And my clarinet has nothing to do with my foot!**

**Luna246: SORRY! No dice. No cookie. Not Rev. Good guess, though!**

**Spudwick13: Yeah, I took that into account before making this story! (Also a Loonatic nerd. XD) Since you had, like, 3 guesses, but one of them was right, you get 1/3 cookie! XD**

**R&R!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Okay, so this one is REALLY long, but I needed to put all of this in here. It would have totally screwed me up otherwise… The good thing is that I was able to post this. I had no school today! Two words: Senior Exams. And I'm not a senior! …Anyways, this chapter sheds a little light on how Duck knows the thief, who she is, and what she looks like. Important stuff!**

**Luna246: Nice try! **

**MileyLoonaticsFan96: Thanks! And it's whatever kind of cookie you want it to be.**

**Spudwick13: You made me lol. XD And you're about to find out more!**

**nightmaster000: As I've said above… Here's more info!**

"Duck! Lexi!" Ace yelled for the 40th time since they got to the museum. The thief hadn't severely injured anyone or worse as of yet, but they were still worried about their teammates.

Before they left, they had agreed to contact each other once every hour on the hour. When neither Duck nor Lexi called in, and when they didn't pick up when everyone else tried calling, they knew something was up, so they ditched their posts and left for the museum. They had been picking their way through the museum, looking for signs of a struggle and/or a break in, but so far, they hadn't had any luck.

They ran into a large room labeled 'Modern Art' on a plaque over the doorway, and that's when they knew they had the right room. The first thing that they noticed was the carnage in the center of the room where the fight had taken place. A great number of small sculptures on pedestals had been upturned, though most of them appeared undamaged. The second thing that they noticed was the mountain of marbles on one end of the room. Suddenly, Duck appeared out of nowhere in front of the marble mountain, and Lexi unburied herself a moment later.

"I have marbles in places I didn't even know I had places," Lexi stated, hitting the side of her head with the palm of her hand and dislodging a few marbles from behind her ears.

"Lexi! Duck!" Ace yelled with a relieved tone in his voice as the rest of the Loonatics ran over to their teammates. "Are you two alright?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Lexi replied. "You guys just missed her. We would've called you, but she smashed our communicators."

"So-the-thief-_did_-come-here-wow-was-she-as-good-as-the-other-guards-at-the-crime-scenes-said-she-was?" Rev asked.

"Yeah, she was good. She took both Duck and I on at the same time, and still beat us!" Lexi exclaimed. "And it looked like she had powers!"

"Say _what_?" Tech asked.

"Duck and I were rushing her from both sides, and she flew up into the air!"

"I'm going to see if I can get some lights on in here," Tech said as he started walking away.

"Did you figure out anything about the thief?" Ace asked.

"Only that she's more cryptic than a fortune cookie," Lexi replied. "I asked her a bunch of stuff, but she would never give me a straight answer!"

"Do-you-know-what-she-took?" Rev asked.

"No clue. We got buried before she took anything."

"How did she fight?" Ace asked. "I want to know what we're up against."

"She used swords," Lexi replied. "Two of them; right up your alley, Ace. She used a flash bang, too. She also used a shuriken to break my communicator and a throwing knife to break the glass on _that_ thing." She pointed to the sculpture of the used-to-be gumball machine. Suddenly, the lights turned on, and everyone squinted for a moment as they adjusted to the sudden change in light.

"She apparently used a grappling hook as well," Tech observed as he walked back into the room and pointed at the ceiling. There was a small, black hook latched onto one of the rafters, and it was trailing about three feet of a very fine wire. "That explains how she flew up into the air. She must have cut it to get back down. Rev, can you get that for me?"

"Sure-thing-Tech," Rev replied as he shot up into the air.

Tech, meanwhile, walked over to the mountain of marbles and started using his magnetism on it. Because the marbles were made of glass, they didn't move an inch. The metal throwing knife inside of the pile, however, shot up into the air and flew into Tech's waiting hand. Rev landed a moment later and gave Tech the hook.

"If I can figure out who her supplier is," Tech began, "then I can probably figure out who she is. I can use these to figure it out."

"Good thinking, Tech," Ace said. "Let's try to figure out what the thief took."

It wasn't difficult. Any exhibits that were knocked over were a few feet away from where they were originally sitting. There was one exhibit, still standing, that was missing the statuette it was displaying.

"Looks like a pretty pricy statuette was sitting here," Tech stated as she examined the plaque describing the piece. It included a small picture of the piece in question. It was a small statuette made of what appeared to be twisted pieces of gold with round knobs at the ends. There was a large, red gem hanging in the center.

Suddenly, a group of six men ran into the room, guns drawn, wearing bullet-proof vests, helmets, and a few had riot shields. One of them yelled, "FREEZE!"

The Loonatics spun around to face the newcomers, ready for a fight, until they realized that they were the police, and the police realized that they were the Loonatics, and both sides relaxed. One of the assembled officers without a helmet detached from the group and approached the Loonatics. He was a tall, portly, African-American man with a goatee and a buzz cut.

"Sorry about that," he said in a deep voice as he approached. "I thought you were the thief. We were watching this place as closely as you were, so we rushed over right as the silent alarm went off. It couldn't have been more than ten minutes ago... Anyways, I'm Chief Greggs of the Acmetropolis Police Department."

"Pleasure to finally meet you," Ace said as he shook his hand, indirectly commenting on his absence at earlier crime scenes.

The chief either didn't notice, or ignored it. He spoke into a small walkie-talkie strapped to his shoulder. "Guys, it's all clear. Send up the curator."

The chief asked about what the Loonatics had already found while they waited for the curator. The curator had gotten the call when the alarm went off, but he was last to arrive. The police made him wait to go inside until they got the all-clear from the chief.

After a short wait, a middle-aged, flustered looking man in a rumpled suit burst into the room. He was wearing an ID card that said 'Curator.' He half-walked half-ran to the Loonatics and the chief, and spoke to them with a slight New England accent.

"What did the thief take?" he asked nervously.

"Well, it looks as if only one piece was actually taken, but a few were damaged," Tech replied.

"Oh, dear... What section of the museum were they in?" the curator asked.

"Uh...this one," Lexi replied with a questioning tone. It seemed like a stupid question considering how someone with half a brain could see the damage done to the room they were in and guess that was where the thief was.

The curator looked confused for a moment, then said, "Your joking." Everyone shook their heads, so he walked past the Loonatics and looked around the room. He inspected the broken pieces and the place where missing piece was before returning.

"I thought the police said that this thief is only interested in highly valuable pieces?" the curator asked. The Loonatics gave him questioning looks. "The Modern Arts section, you see, is full of the least valuable items in the museum. The only remotely valuable piece in here that was damaged was that one." He pointed to the mountain of marbles. "And the piece that was taken was, well, relatively worthless; junk, essentially. Nice looking junk, but still junk."

"But-it-looked-as-if-it-was-made-of-gold-not-to-mention-the-huge-gem-hanging-inside," Rev said.

"No, no, no, it was copper painted to look gold. And the gem was, er, plastic, I think. Maybe glass."

The Loonatics all looked at each other. That didn't fit at all with the other things that the thief had taken. Tech's pattern theory had just gone down the drain, which left the Loonatics clueless as to where the thief would go next. Again.

It wasn't a total loss, though. They still had the throwing knife and grappling hook that they could analyze and possibly trace to a source.

And then there was Duck's account of the whole thing. No one had noticed his silence, and the mallard, for once, didn't speak up about his opinion on what had happened. His head was still reeling, and he was too shocked for words, anyways.

__

A few hours later, the Loonatics had gone back to their HQ. None of them were very happy with the recent developments, and they had no idea where to go next. Tech immediately went to the lab to analyze the gear left behind by the thief while Lexi gave a play-by-play of what had happened in the museum. Tech came back right as she finished, and he didn't look happy.

"I don't get it," he said as he sat down with the others. "The throwing knife didn't match any known makers, which isn't strange considering how almost no one makes them anymore and they can be pretty easy to make yourself if you know what you're doing. The strange part is the grappling hook. The wire it was connected to is homemade, and stronger than anything I've ever seen before. The hook itself is also homemade, and also stronger than the average sports store hook. It's all so confusing..."

"Don't kill yourself trying to figure it out, Tech," Ace said. "If it's homemade gear, and we don't know whose home we're dealing with, then there's nothing we can do. We have the little, albeit new evidence from Duck and Lexi, so we'll see where we can go from there." Then, Ace realized something.

"Actually," he began, "you haven't said a word, yet, Duck. Actually, you haven't said anything since we found you at the museum." It was very unlike the egotistical mallard to stay so quiet for so long, not that anyone was complaining.

"Oh, it's uh-" Duck started.

"Duck, are you not telling us something?" Ace asked with suspicion in his voice. All eyes were on the mallard now.

"...I think I know who the thief is," Duck admitted after a moment.

"You _what_?" everyone asked him at the same time (except for Slam, who jumbled his words and just shouted incomprehensively.)

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" Lexi asked.

"Because I- I don't just know who she is, I _know_ her," Duck admitted.

This surprised everyone else. Based on how Duck was acting, they had probably been friends, and he didn't want to rat her out in front of the police. They decided to cut him some slack.

"Who is she, then?" Tech asked after a moment.

"Her name is Kitty Lewellen. Well, her first name is actually Katherine, but she never goes by that."

"When you said Kitty back at the museum," Lexi began, "I thought you were just mocking the thief because she was a cat. But...you recognized her?" Duck nodded.

"I'm going to go down to the lab," Tech said as he stood up. "I'll look up Lewellen on the computer."

"We'll go with you," Ace stated. "We should all see what you come up with."

After almost an hour of searching, though, Tech didn't find anything. There were no records of any kind on anyone named Katherine Lewellen on any database that the Loonatics had access to, and they had access to almost every database in existence.

"Duck, are you sure this person exists?" Tech asked, half-joking. Duck glared at him.

"Well-let's-face-it-it's-kind-of-weird-that-we-can't-find-her-in-any-of-these-databases-and-even-if-she-changed-her-name-we'd-find-something-but-right-now-we're-finding-nothing," Rev pointed out.

"So do you all think I was _lying_ when I said I knew her?" Duck asked accusingly. "You think I'm making all of this up?"

"Not at all," Ace reassured him. "We're just..." He couldn't find the right word.

"Here! Look at this and tell me she's not real!" Duck ordered as he pulled something out of his pocket and thrust it into Ace's hand.

It was an old, crumpled up photograph of three young anthros. Ace recognized Pinkster and Duck, but he had never seen the last one before. She was a young cat anthro with long, black hair, green eyes with cat-like slits for pupils, and red fur with three lighter stripes on each side of her face. She was a good bit taller than the other two, and appeared to be a little older.

"That's her?" Lexi asked from over Ace's shoulder. Duck nodded his head.

"She-was-at-the-same-orphanage-as-you-and-Pinkster-were-you-all-friends?" Rev asked.

"She and I were friends, but she never liked Pinkster much. She always said that he was bad news. In retrospect, I should've listened to her..."

"Did she seem like the kind of person who would do all that she's done?" Ace asked as he handed the photo back to Duck. "I mean- did she seem capable of this kind of crime spree?"

"Capable?" Duck repeated. "In the sense of _'could_ she do it?' That would be a yes. She was the fastest runner at the orphanage, even faster than most of the adults. She can also hold her own in a fight. I remember that the other kids used to pick on the three of us for being anthros, but that all stopped when they realized that she could turn them into pretzels when she felt like it. She also had a knack for disappearing without a trace and reappearing without warning. In the sense of if she _would_ do it, though... I don't think she would without a really good reason."

"Duck, are you sure that was her name?" Tech asked as he continued scanning his screen for a sign of anything on the elusive feline.

"Tech, for the last time-"

"I'm not saying that she doesn't exist! Actually, I think this _is_ her based on the fact that I can't find anything at all. If she really doesn't want to be found, then this is a good way to do it. How her existence seems to have been wiped off of the face of the Earth is beyond me, though. And yet, it matches with what I found on her gear; a big, fat nothing. Is she really good with technology by any chance?"

"Are you kidding? This is the girl who broke six lamps, four clocks, two DVD players and a toaster in her first week at the orphanage!" Duck exclaimed. "She and technology never got along well."

"Then she's not working alone," Lexi speculated. This worried everyone else; they had never even thought of dealing with more than one person.

"I wish I knew why she was doing this," Duck muttered. "It's just...not like her."

"People change, Duck," Lexi said sympathetically.

"Tech, you keep looking. Come get us if you find anything," Ace ordered. "The rest of us will go back upstairs and try to figure out what to do next."

The Loonatics, minus Tech, headed out of the room, but before they were all upstairs, Ace pulled Duck aside.

"Hey, Duck," he said. "You seem to have been pretty good friends with this thief. I just need to know that if it comes down to it...you'll do whatever you need to do to stop her, friend or not."

"Of course," Duck replied, surprised that Ace had felt he had to ask. "Kitty and I are- _were_ really good friends...but the team comes first. Don't worry about me."

__

_**Kitty's POV**_

I had scrubbed my face for hours, but I still couldn't get all of the black substance out of my fur. It smelled bad, it was sticky, and it made it look like I fell face-first in a mud puddle. At least no one could see me on my perch atop a roof of a six-story building.

My phone buzzed, so I pulled it out of my pocket. I took a quick glance at the caller ID before answering.

"Who are you and what are you selling?" I asked casually. We had different codes for when I was called and when I was doing the calling.

"Alphabetized M&M's," the familiar male voice replied from the other end of the line. When making a code system like that, it was best to use something that made no sense to anyone other than yourself. In that case, it was an inside joke. We both knew a guy who had actually tried alphabetizing M&M's once, and it took him almost an hour before realizing what he was doing. "Interested?"

"I'll take all that you're selling. Right after you do my laundry and pay my car insurance bill." The code was pretty random sometimes, and I had no part in coming up with it. It was all done by the same guy who had made my phone, the same guy I had spoken to last time, and the same guy I was speaking to now. "What's up?" I asked.

"Bad news," he stated grimly. "Alec's having trouble." Alec was another guy we both worked with, and 'having trouble' didn't refer to the police. They were the _least_ of our problems. We had been taking part in not-exactly-legal activities for years, and none of us had gotten caught. Well, by the police anyway. If one of us was 'having trouble,' it meant that they had been found out, and they were running for it. Only two of us had ever gotten away after 'having trouble,' and neither lasted long afterwards.

"If you talk to him again, tell him- tell him I send him my best," I said sadly. Alec was a good friend of mine, as were all of the people I worked with.

"How're you doing?" he asked after a moment.

"Fine, fine... Except for one thing that has me a _little_ mad at you."

"What did _I_ do?" he asked.

"I told you to find anything and everything on the Loonatics. If one of them ever changed their name, that qualifies as important. In this case, _very_ important."

"What are you talking about?" he asked. I heard him typing away furiously in the background, probably doing an impromptu search. "I looked at every single little thing on those guys, and sure, there wasn't much to find sometimes, but finding something like this would be-" He stopped taking for a moment. "Oh. Wait! Hold on! I know that name from somewhere... Oh, jeez, it's-!"

"Exactly." I had told him about my orphanage days, and the name Daniel Duck had come up a lot. "How exactly did you miss that the first time?"

"Well excuse me, but I was multitasking at the time," he replied with a snarky tone. He didn't multitask very well according to himself, but I'd seen him building six different things at once while programming on a computer and reading a book. "...Is this going to affect anything?"

"It only gives me more motive than before to get this job done," I reassured him. "But I'm running out of time. There's just too much out there... I'm going to need to hit the 'big one'." The 'big one' was a certain job I had originally planned not to do. It was very dangerous, and odds were, it wouldn't end well for me.

"The _what_? You're joking, right? You know what could happen after that! _He'll_ know you're there!" _Him_ knowing I was there would be the equivalent of 'having trouble.' _He_ was the reason I was doing this. Well, that particular series of jobs, anyway.

"Getting that one will be like getting twenty jobs in one," I stated. "I won't do it quite yet so I can get more in between being found out and our deadline, but I _will_ be getting it. Hopefully that will make sure they don't have enough to do what they want." It was risky, very risky, but even if I got caught, it would be worth it. There was more at stake here than anyone knew.

"Fine," he sighed. He knew better than to even try arguing with me. "But if you get caught, don't come crying to me. So, all you need is info on the 'big one'?"

"That's it. Oh, and if you get a chance, look Danny up for me. I want to see what he's been up to."

"I'll see what I can do," he replied. I heard something go 'ping' in the background, and I heard him furiously start typing again. Then he gasped. "You just got pinged!" he exclaimed.

Quick techie-speak translation. Getting pinged meant that someone just did a search on something that you're keeping an eye on, such as a certain product, group, or in this case, a person. My phone friend had set up monitors for us that would tell us when anyone in our group got pinged. We hardly ever got pinged, but it was confusing when it did happen. We didn't have files on any database; it was as if we didn't exist, so we were never identified if we left evidence behind, but we were all too good for that. The file-wipe was the only thing that my phone friend didn't do that helped us with our efforts.

"I think I know who did it," I told him, thinking back to the museum when I had identified Danger Duck as my old friend Daniel Duck. I knew I wasn't the only one doing the identifying in that situation. "Danny recognized me back at the museum."

"He _what_? This is not good, not good at all!"

"_Relax_!" I shouted through the phone. "They won't find anything. Knowing who I am won't get them anywhere."

"But it could get you into trouble for when you hit the 'big one'," he reminded me.

"...Oh, _shit_!" I exclaimed. If they knew who I was, then I would for sure be found out by _him_ after hitting the 'big one'. The slim chance I had of doing that job without being found out had just vanished into thin air.

"Hey! Watch your mouth!"

"I said it once and I'll say it again; I need a techie, not a mom!"

"That is very insulting. Insulting and hurtful," he said, jokingly sounding insulted. "So, what are you going to do?"

I sighed and replied, "I'm still going for it. I have to. I'll need to change my plan, though... I'll call you when I've figured something out."

We hung up, and I put my phone away before standing up. I looked around briefly at the urban surroundings before moving. The view could only be so good from the top of a building in the middle of a crowded, dirty, bad part of a large city. Most people would be awed by the view from where I was, but I had seen so many better views in my time.

I took a running start before jumping to the roof of the neighboring building. I continued running and jumping from roof to roof afterward. Whenever I needed to think, I took a run. And I had a lot to think about.

**A/N: Long, but informative. Also leaves a lot of unanswered questions, am I right? XD Well, that's what I was trying to do. There'll be more history next chapter. R&R!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Okay, so I'm glad I got this up now, because I might not be able to get another chapter up until after next week. Why? Two words: Semester. Finals. The bane of my existence…especially since I usually fail half of them. DX I'll try to get one up sometime over the weekend, but no promises, and I wouldn't be too optimistic if I were you.**

**acosta perez jose ramiro: Thanks! And, like I said before, I intend to! XD**

**Spudwick13: It is ominous, isn't it? XD That's what I was going for! The 'big one' will be featured in either the next chapter, the one after that, or the one after that, depending on where I decide to put everything.**

**Luna246: DON'T DIE! …And you'll see!**

The Loonatics' talked for hours about what they should try doing next, and in that time, Tech had given up on his search. Everyone else gave up not long later seeing as no one had any feasible ideas about where to go next. It was getting late, so almost all of them either went to bed or stayed in the living room and watched TV. Duck, however, decided to take a walk and get some fresh air.

At least, that's what he told the others. In reality, he wanted to try to clear his head a bit. The fact that Kitty was the thief came as a big shock to him, and he was trying to figure out why she would do it. No matter how hard he tried, though, he couldn't come up with a good reason for her to do it. The way he saw it, she was doing it for the money.

Thinking about all of that made him realize just how lucky he was, though. His two best friends from his childhood had both turned into high-profile criminals, but he became a super hero. The world worked in mysterious ways.

He was walking down the street, wrapped in his own thoughts, and as the streetlights came on, he saw something moving across the rooftops. It moved too fast for him to see clearly, but he figured he should take a look at it.

He quacked to the roof where he saw it, but there was nothing there anymore. Then, he saw something moving away from him very quickly a few rooftops away, so he started quacking from rooftop to rooftop, staying a good distance away so whatever it was didn't know it was being followed. It was moving so quickly, Duck wouldn't have been able to keep up with it, anyways.

Eventually, it reached a gap between buildings that was too big for it to jump, so it stopped, planted one foot on the edge of the building, and looked down at the street. Duck quacked to the opposite end of the roof and waited a moment to make sure it didn't hear him. When it didn't move, he figured he was safe, so he took a few steps forward while still staying a good distance away. He was able to see it better when he was closer, and he immediately recognized who it was.

She was a lot taller than he remembered. He and Pinkster had always been on the short side, while she had been taller than average, but she was probably a full two feet taller than him, now. She had cropped her hair short, but had it styled so it almost completely covered her red, furry ears. She was wearing a black leather jacket, black pants, and black boots. Duck could also see that she was wearing black gloves.

He took a few steps closer so he was only a few feet away from her. Her ear twitched in his direction, but other than that she didn't move. He wasn't really sure what he should do, so he just stood there for a moment.

"Are you just going to stand there all day?" Kitty asked suddenly, never turning around, making Duck jump. She chuckled and said, "You always did scare easy. Though I guess that's not a common occurrence anymore, huh? I'd never have pegged you as the super hero type, but I guess there's a first for everything."

Duck knew what she was talking about. Back at the orphanage, he had been a first class wimp when it came to the other kids. He and Pinkster would pull all sorts of pranks on the adults, but they never went near the other kids. Anthros still weren't held in high regard in some areas, and that had been one of them. He and Pinkster tried to stay out of the other kids' way in order to avoid being picked on or possibly beat up, but that had all changed when Kitty came along.

She had been dropped off at the orphanage by her mother, who, at that point, could no longer take care of her, let alone herself. At first, the other kids had tried to pick on her like they did with the other anthros, but that all stopped when she punched one of them so hard, he lost four of his baby teeth. She defended the other anthros, too, and had been enough of a force to keep the other kids at bay. She and Duck became really good friends over the time she was there.

Then, she got transferred to another orphanage, and that was the last Duck had ever seen of her. The non-anthro kids started up again as if she had never been there, but luckily for Duck, he only had to wait about two months before being adopted. He never knew what happened to Kitty after she left.

"I was just thinking the same thing," he replied dryly. "So you're a criminal now?" She didn't reply. "I'm going to have to take you in, you know."

She laughed and said, "You can try."

"You do realize I have superpowers, right?"

"Yeah; I've heard you using them to follow me around. You really need to work at sneaking around, you know."

"Kitty, I'm warning you; I will use my powers to take you in if you make me," he warned as he formed an egg in his hand.

He blinked, and in that time, Kitty had turned around, drawn one of her swords, and put it up to his throat. Duck made a nervous gulping noise in his throat, and she stared at him with her piercing green eyes.

"Duck, if I found you threatening in any way, either you would be dead, or I would have disappeared," she stated coldly. He tossed the egg behind him, where it exploded on the neighboring rooftop, and she smirked and put down her sword.

"Where do those things come from, anyways?" Duck asked.

She smiled as the blade of the sword retracted into the handle. She straightened her arm, and a thin cable shot out of her sleeve, latched onto the sword handle, and pulled it back up into her sleeve. The handle was short enough for her to be able to move her arm freely and keep the sword hidden, but long enough to both hide the blade and be easy to use.

"I guess you and technology finally get along," Duck reasoned.

Kitty laughed and replied, "Not at all! I can't tell you how many times a flash bang has gone off in my pocket or something like that."

"So then how come there's nothing at all about you on any database? And how did you get all of that gear?" Duck asked.

"...I know a guy," she replied cryptically. She sat down and swung her legs over the edge of the roof. Duck sat down, too, but stayed a few feet away from the edge.

"What guy?" Duck asked casually.

"Nice try, Danny," Kitty replied. "So, you've been busy since I last saw you. I heard you and Pinkster got adopted a few months after I left."

"It's Duck now. Just Duck. And, yeah, we did. Did you hear about what happened to him?"

"Yeah, I did. It made me laugh. I told you he was bad news!"

Duck laughed a bit, but then stopped when something occurred to him. "...Did you get adopted after you left?" he asked tentatively.

"...No," she replied shortly. "I got...wrapped up in other things."

"Like becoming a thief?" Duck asked accusingly.

"Duck, you have no idea what's really going on here," she said quietly, almost to herself.

"Then tell me what's going on," he said.

"...Do you believe I have a good reason for doing this?" Kitty asked suddenly.

The question caught him off guard, and he was silent for a moment as he tried to figure out what his answer was. He had given it a lot of thought, but still wasn't entirely sure of his answer. It was the only possible one in his eyes, though.

"...No, I don't."

"Then there's no point in explaining more," Kitty stated. "I'll just tell you this: Stay out of it. You and the rest of your team."

"Huh?" He had been caught off guard yet again. "Why should we do that? To make your life easier?"

"Duck put aside your thoughts of me as a criminal for one second!" she ordered harshly. There wasn't a lot that shut Duck up, but that definitely did the trick. "Duck, there's a lot more at stake here than you think. For the good of you and your team, stay as far away from this as possible."

"You know we can't do that," Duck replied adamantly, shifting his gaze from her to the street below. This conversation was starting to make him mad at Kitty, someone he once considered to be his best friend. He was also getting pretty confused, and he was reminded of the Pinkster incident.

"Then if you don't, watch your backs. Be careful who you talk to about this. And most importantly, watch for the snake," she advised.

"What the heck does that mean?" Duck asked as he looked up at Kitty. In that short time, though, she had disappeared.

Duck shot to his feet and wildly looked around, but it was pointless. She was gone.

**A/N: Okay, so, now you know just about the entire back story to how Kitty and Duck know each other. Is it Kitty's whole back story? Of course not! That'll come later. 'Till then, R&R!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Surprise! So, the way I saw it, I'm going to fail most of my exams whether I study or not, and they don't make that big of a difference to my final grade, so I decided to type instead of study. I regret nothing. But I probably won't update again this week.**

**Three quick chapter notes. 1: My italicized marks in the previous chapter were un-italicized. I don't know why that happened, but it's not worth going back and fixing. 2: Between the first and second parts of this chapter, there's a time lapse of a couple weeks. I said that a few weeks passed in the chapter itself, but I just wanted to make sure no one would get confused. 3: So, this one was kind of long. Why? Because this could technically also be divided into two chapters. It was either two average length ones or one longer one, and normally I would have gone for the two shorter ones, but I didn't feel like it.**

**Luna246: Don't hurt yourself! XD More will be revealed in the next couple of chapters!**

**acosta perez jose ramiro: Thanks! And I didn't even think of that, but she wasn't going to hurt him, anyways.**

**Spudwick13: I hope this makes up for the short chapter! And as it is I have a C- in Social Studies. DX And I didn't notice I was doing the cliffhanger thing... XD**

**nightmaster000: No, just friendship. Like I said in my A/N for the first chapter, I'm completely neutral to relationships, but I'm not going to show any in my stories.**

Duck had come back to HQ later that night, but by then, no one else was awake. He decided to wait until morning to tell them about his meeting with Kitty; he hadn't found out anything important, anyways.

Looking back on his conversation with her, though, he half-wished that he could take back some of what he said. The hero part of him said that she had the accusations coming, especially since he knew she was the one behind the thefts. The part of him that was still Kitty's friend, however, wished that he hadn't been so hard on her. It didn't really seem to have affected her, but she still wished he hadn't said some of it.

He woke up the next morning and groggily walked into the kitchen. He was surprised to see that no one was there, and even more surprised to see that it was already 10:30. He usually didn't sleep in.

_I must have been out later than I thought_, he thought.

He grabbed a quick breakfast and walked into the living room. Still, no one was there. He wondered where everyone could be as he started quacking around the tower looking for them. It didn't take him very long to figure out where they were; he quacked into the conference room and startled everyone.

"Here you are!" Duck exclaimed as he looked around the room. Everyone was sitting in their respective chairs, talking to the image of Zadavia in the center of the room.

"It's about time you showed up," Lexi said jokingly.

"Where were you out so late last night?" Ace asked. That was when Duck remembered that he hadn't told them about his conversation with Kitty, yet.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I met Kitty?" Duck asked as he sat down. All eyes were on him with mixed expressions. "It was completely accidental. I was out walking around, and I saw something weird, so I followed it, and _poof_ there she was."

"I take it you didn't arrest her, then," Ace stated coolly.

"I tried, but if she was able to hold off both Lexi and I without breaking a sweat, then me even trying to fight her alone would have been suicide!" Duck exclaimed. "Lucky for me she was in more of a talking mood."

"Did she tell you anything important, such as who her partner is, or why she's doing this?" Zadavia asked.

"Nope; she was as cryptic as ever."

"What _did_ she say, then?" Ace asked.

"She told us to stay out of this," Duck replied.

"Why? To make her life easier?" Lexi asked accusingly, though Kitty herself wasn't there. Duck winced a little hearing almost exactly what he said to Kitty come from someone else.

"No...she said to do it for our own good," Duck explained. "She wouldn't say why, though." Everyone looked thoroughly confused.

"What else did she say?" Lexi asked.

"Hmmm...she confirmed that she was working with someone, though she didn't say who... She also said that there was more at stake than we realized, or something like that. Then she said to watch our backs and to be careful who we talk to about this," Duck said. "Oh, and she said to watch for the snake. Whatever _that_ means..."

"This is getting stranger and stranger..." Zadavia stated.

"What-could-she-mean-by-watch-for-the-snake-I-mean-that-kind-of-a-warning-is-straight-out-of-a-horror-movie-or-something!" Rev exclaimed.

"What has me worried is that 'more at stake' thing..." Tech stated. "What could possibly be at stake that's tied to a few robberies?"

"We've got to catch this thief before this gets out of hand," Ace said determinedly. "...Now how should we do that?"

"With the obscurity of this last robbery at the museum, my pattern theory won't work right anymore," Tech stated. "I can try finding patterns that have nothing to do with physical aspects of what was stolen, but I haven't found any so far."

"Even-with-your-pattern-theory-we'd-need-to-find-out-exactly-where-she's-going-next," Rev speculated. "If-she-was-able-to-handle-both-Duck-and-Lexi-then-we-would-all-need-to-be-there-to-be-able-to-catch-her-but-to-do-that-we'd-need-to-know-exactly-where-to-go."

"Until we figure out what's going on here," Duck began, "it looks as if there's nothing we can do."

"I'm going to go call the chief," Tech declared as he stood up. "I'll tell him that we know who the thief is." They would have called as soon as they found out about Kitty, but by then it had been too late, so they had decided to wait until morning.

"Hold on a minute, Tech," Zadavia said, stopping Tech in his tracks. "I don't believe that this is something we can tell the chief, or anyone else for that matter."

"But aren't we supposed to work _with_ the police on this?" Lexi asked.

"Yes, but I'm not sure what their reaction would be to hearing that you know for a fact that the robberies were done by someone who, according to the rest of the world, doesn't exist," Zadavia replied. "In order to fully erase herself from existence in the way that she has, Lewellen would have had to have hacked into many different databases, some of them operated by the government. It is almost impossible to hack the government systems, and therefore it is almost impossible for anyone to truly disappear. The police would have a hard time believing that Lewellen was able to do all of that, especially since we still have no idea as to who is helping her."

She was right. Until the Loonatics got more information, they couldn't tell anyone what they had found. They were on their own.

__

_**Kitty's POV**_

My conversation with Duck stuck with me over the next couple of weeks. I continued thinking about it, replaying everything we said in my head over and over. I had meant everything I had said to him about staying out of this for his own good; it made no difference to my actions whether or not the Loonatics left me alone. By getting involved, however, they were putting themselves in more danger than they realized. Unfortunately, Duck ignored my warnings, and the Loonatics were as involved in my antics as ever, but I wasn't the one I was worrying about.

We hadn't planned on their involvement when my group and I were planning out this whole operation. The way we saw it, the Loonatics only dealt with super villains, not thieves like me, even if I did do high-profile crimes. We had never even considered them being called in to help because my skill set was above average. It really said something about what I was capable of.

Their involvement, however, was leading to unforeseen complications. Hitting the 'big one' could put them in danger along with myself, whether or not they realized it, but I had to do it. I _would_ help them out if it did lead to any...complications. Even if Duck seemed to hate me for what I was doing, which he did, I still wanted to keep him and the rest of his team out of harm's way.

As I replayed the conversation in my head, it stung a little when I remembered what Duck had said to me. He didn't believe that I had a good reason for my actions, which was understandable considering what I had been up to lately, but his accusations smarted a bit. I wasn't a bleeding heart or anything, but it still kind of hurt to hear that coming from someone who I considered to be my friend.

I shook off those thoughts as I finally got the door I was working on open. That conversation had taken place about two weeks ago, and in that time, I had picked up the pace. Instead of doing one job every three days, like I used to, I moved to one every two days, and then one per day. I had done a total of 12 jobs in 16 days, and my time was almost up, meaning that it was time to hit the 'big one.'

The 'big one' was our nickname for a certain job I had at first decided not to do, but then I changed my mind. I called it that because of the payout; I only ever took the specific item I was after, no more. There was usually only one thing I was after. This, however, was going to be like hitting 20 or 30 jobs in one. It was also the easiest job _ever_. I was already inside of the building by then.

The building was a small, one-story bank. It was one of the little no-name banks that no one had ever heard of, and the only security was the locks on the doors. I had gotten into the building easily, and I had picked the lock on a door inside of the bank to get to the vaults.

There were five circular vault doors lining the wall, and that was it. I walked up to the second door and briefly examined the lock before gingerly pulling something out of my pocket.

To anyone outside of my little group, it was just a pen. If you clicked it, the pen tip came out of the front and you could write with it. However, if you treated the clip like a safe lock and spun it around enough times in the right direction, aligned it correctly, pressed it down, and then clicked it, it turned into a laser. Not like the kind of laser that made a small, red dot on the wall; this thing could cut through solid metal. Granted it was really low-intensity, but it still worked.

It took me almost an hour, but I was eventually able to cut through the door and get inside of the vault. I had until the bank opened the next morning, so still I had plenty of time. Which was _great_ considering how I had gotten barely any sleep during the past few days, and I didn't feel up to being my usual quick, quiet, efficient self.

That vault was filled with safety deposit boxes. It was a 7x7 room, and the boxes completely covered the walls, so there were a few hundred of them. I thankfully knew which one I was going for, so I didn't waste any time. I walked along the back wall until I found the box numbered 663. It was right in the middle of the wall, and just like the rest of the boxes, it had a fingerprint/security code panel. I had neither of these, but it didn't stop me. I used the pen to cut the box out, careful to avoid tripping the alarm that was most likely attached to the security panel.

Once I cut it out (another 45 minutes later,) I pulled it out of the wall and looked inside. It was filled to the brim with jewelry. Gold, silver, rubies, diamonds, earrings, necklaces; you name it, and it was in there. There was a lot more there than I thought there would be, but I wasn't complaining. I pulled the small backpack I had brought with me off of my back, and put everything inside, box and all.

As I made my way out of the bank, I wondered what the repercussions would be of what I had just done.

I just hoped that the Loonatics didn't do anything stupid.

__

The police arrived on the scene first. The Loonatics were busy dealing with a super villain that had come out of hiding at that time, so they didn't get there until much later. By then, the police had analyzed the scene, and they were waiting for someone from the bank to get there.

"Perfect timing, Loonatics!" the chief exclaimed as the Loonatics walked into the bank. "The bank manager will be here in a few minutes, so I can fill you in on what we've found before he arrives."

"Don't tell me; not much," Duck said.

"Actually, I'm not entirely sure if this is our thief," the chief replied. "This was a very rough job. A clerk arrived this morning and did his usual rounds before opening up. A hole was cut into the door of one of the vaults, and one of the safety deposit boxes was cut out of the wall. This was a _lot_ sloppier than our thief's usual work."

"How on earth could anyone cut through solid steel?" Tech asked incredulously.

"It looks as if she used a laser," the chief replied. "We won't know if it could be our thief until we know what was taken. The bank doesn't check what's put into the boxes, and the clerk doesn't have access to the names of the owners of the boxes, so we have to wait for the manager. We'll have to question the owner of the box about what he put inside."

"Leave that to us, chief," Ace said.

Just then, a short, plump man with balding, dark brown hair burst through the bank doors and rushed over to the chief and the Loonatics. He wore a rumpled gray suit and small, round glasses, and he spoke in a nasally voice.

"Sorry I'm late! I got here as fast as I could!" he exclaimed.

"Well, now that you're here, maybe you could tell us who owns the safety deposit box that was stolen," the chief suggested.

"Oh, yes, of course! Follow me to my office and I'll see what I can do," the short man ordered, and they all followed him to the back of the building where there was a small room with a desk, chair, lamp, laptop, and not much else. Ace, the chief, and the manager were the only ones who went in; everyone else had to wait outside. The room was just too small to fit everyone.

"If this thief cut open the door with a laser, I don't think this is Lewellen," Tech said to the others as they waited. "The M.O.* is too different. Lewellen works cleanly and quickly. This would have taken hours to do, and it is anything _but_ clean."

"Maybe she did it just to throw us off?" Lexi ventured.

"Throw us off of _what_?" Tech asked. "We've been at a dead end for weeks now!"

As the others talked about what they thought had happened, Duck continued thinking about his meeting with Kitty. This time, though, he focused more on her cryptic warnings.

_Watch your backs. Be careful who you talk to about this. And most importantly, watch for the snake._

'Watch your backs' was pretty straightforward, but the question was who should they be watching for? There were a lot of people out there who wanted the Loonatics gone, and they knew to watch for them, but if they were dealing with a new crowd (which was exactly what Duck suspected,) then they had no idea who to look for.

Then there was 'be careful who you talk to about this.' Who were they supposed to be careful of? The same people they should be watching out for? And why would telling them about it be bad? And what exactly fell under the 'this' category?

And then there was the last one, 'watch for the snake.' What did that even _mean_?

Instead of getting answers like he had hoped, talking to Kitty had given them even more questions, and they had plenty of those as it was.

The office door opened, and all conversation stopped as Ace, the chief, and the bank manager emerged from the office.

"The guy who owned the box is named Vincent Peshe," Ace explained. "He's some big shot who deals in trading with Italy. He's all the way over on the other side of town. Tech, Slam, Lexi, I want you three to stay here in case the police find something else. Duck, Rev, you two come with me. We'll go talk to Peshe about what was in that box."  
><em><span><br>~~~~~~~~~_  
><em><span><strong><br>Kitty's POV**_

I immediately re-packed the bag of jewels I was sorting through, grabbed my gear, and ran out of the little abandoned building I was hanging out in. The Loonatics had just done something stupid, and I was going to have to be the one to make sure nothing happened to them.

I had set up a few, extremely hard to detect listening devices inside of the bank before leaving. I had never used them before, and no one would see any reason for me to set them up, so no one would be looking for them. I had brought them with me thinking I would have no reason to use them, but I was glad I did at that point. I was then able to keep track of what the Loonatics would do in response to that robbery at the bank, which was something I really needed to do. And they had just done exactly what I didn't want them to do.

I knew that they would have to go talk to the owner of the box after I took it, but I expected the police to go do that! The Loonatics going to do it really screwed me up. I was just glad I decided to pay attention to what Ace was saying at that moment.

As I sprinted down the streets, I almost tripped myself up when my vibrating phone surprised me. I pulled it out of my pocket and briefly looked at the caller I.D. before hitting the 'Reject Call' button. The caller I.D. had read 'Techie.' We never put our real names in our phones, just in case. 'Techie' was the same guy I had talked to the past few times, and I normally would have taken his call, but I didn't want to distract myself at that time. He would leave a message to call him back if it was really important, or if it was super bad, he would call back, even though he wasn't supposed to if we didn't take his call. Rejecting the call meant we were in the middle of something and that we couldn't talk right them. Not answering after three calls meant we were 'having trouble.'

As I ran, I knew I wouldn't beat the Loonatics there. I just hoped that I got there in time before anything bad happened.

**A/N: Cliffhanger-ish, yes, but worth it. The next chapter will be up hopefully early next week! R&R!**

*** M.O. is the abbreviation for modus operandi, which is a fancy-smancy Latin term used by CSI guys that means how the crime was committed. I couldn't think of a better way to say it that didn't use that term… So, this definition is for all of the people who aren't me who don't watch every crime drama in existence. XD**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: FINALS ARE OVER! AS IS SCHOOL! Too bad I have to do summer school. DX I sorta kinda failed social studies, so I have to take a summer class. (How does someone fail **_**social studies **_**anyways?) But, that doesn't start for a couple of weeks, so that's nothing to worry about. **

**I will, however, not be able to update anything for the next 7 days starting on Friday. You see, we have to go visit my great aunt Delaware… Long story. Don't want to tell it. It won't be fun. But, the most technologically advanced thing my great aunt owns is a toaster, so I won't be able to post anything until after that. DX**

**Just so everybody knows, there is a slight time warp between the first and second parts of this chapter. The second part goes back in time a bit. You'll know where it goes back to when you read it.**

**Spudwick13: Thanks! And I hope I'll be able to get this along in the story, but in case I don't (I'm still new at this,) she's sassy and sarcastic, but serious when she needs to be. She's definitely not laid-back, but not exactly let's-get-this-done-NOW, either. She's more, let's-just-get-this-done-right-the-first-time-so-I-can-go-home. XD**

**acosta perez jose ramiro: Thanks! And, yeah, I guess so. That would make sense…**

**Luna246: Thanks!**

**kakashiluckyblackcat: Thanks! And I'd recommend reading this to know what happens next! ;P**

It took Ace, Rev, and Duck about an hour to get to Peshe's neighborhood, even with their jetpacks. Acmetropolis was a pretty big place, and they had to go all the way to the other end of the city to get there. By car, it was probably a two and a half hour trip on a good day with no traffic, and in a city that big, there was _always_ traffic.

"Now-why-would-someone-use-a-bank-that's-more-than-three-hours-away?" Rev asked as they landed in the middle of a cul-de-sack. "It's-a-little-peculiar-don't-you-think?"

Peshe's house was somewhere in one of those areas with winding roads and dozens of almost identical houses. They had his address, and they just needed to find his house, which wouldn't be quick, either.

"I'm with Rev, here," Duck said as he looked around. "Something about this doesn't smell right."

"Let's try to keep the suspicion off of the victim for now, guys," Ace advised as he took a little scrap of paper out of his pocket. He had written down Peshe's address back at the bank; 405 Maine St. "Right now we've got to find him."

They started wander around, looking for the right street. Unfortunately for them, they were on the wrong end of the subdivision, so it took them almost an hour to find it. It took them the rest of that hour to find Peshe's place at the end of the dead end street, and they were very surprised when they did.

All of the other homes in the area were made of brick with black doors, white windows, and flat roofs. They were all about the size of a single townhome. Peshe's home, on the other hand, looked like four of the other homes put together with an arched, black tiled roof, and it was made of light grey bricks. It stood out.

They walked up to the door, and Rev rang the doorbell. There was something going on inside, but all Ace, Rev, and Duck could see was someone taking a quick peek through the curtains. Then, there was yelling in multiple languages, none of which were English, coming from inside, followed by silence.

"Something's fishy..." Duck said. Ace rolled his eyes at him.

A couple minutes later, the door opened just a crack and a small, young woman in a blue maid's uniform slipped out. She was Hispanic, her black hair was pulled into a bun, and she nervously looked at the Loonatics with her big, brown eyes.

"May I help you?" she asked through a thick Mexican accent.

"We're looking for Vincent Peshe," Ace stated. He didn't have to say who they were; everyone in Acmetropolis knew of the Loonatics. "We need to ask him about his safety deposit box."

"I have many safety deposit boxes," a smooth, suave voice replied from behind the door with a hint of an Italian accent. The door opened wider to reveal a man standing in the doorway.

He was a little on the short side, but he was built, and his shoulders were very wide. He had tan skin, dark eyes, and his black hair was slicked back. He had an interesting taste in clothing; a purple pinstriped suit with a green dress shirt and a pastel yellow tie. A crimson handkerchief was just barely poking out of his breast pocket. He also had a lot of jewelry on, including a thick, gold necklace, earrings, and a few rings. It was pretty obvious that this was Vincent Peshe.

"That will be all, Maria," he said to the maid, who ducked back into the house. He turned back to the Loonatics and said, "Please, come in! It's not often I receive anyone as famous as the Loonatics for a visit."

"Sorry, doc, but we're here on business," Ace said as they walked into the house.

They immediately entered an elaborate foyer. The floor looked as if it was made of marble tiles, and the walls were painted to look like granite. There was a large double staircase at the other end of the foyer with banisters painted gold, and a large set of double doors at the top. There was another set of double doors beneath the staircase, and there was a hallway on either side of the room. One led to another room where there was a group of men lounging around, looking at the Loonatics with interest. The air in that room was thick with cigar smoke, and everything had a yellow tint to it from the light streaming in from the drawn curtains.

_This guy is _weird_,_ Duck thought as he looked around.

"So, I take it something's happened to one of by boxes?" Peshe asked.

"Yeah; somebody stole it," Ace replied. "We need to know what was inside."

"Well, as I've said before, I have many boxes. I'll need to know which one we're talking about."

"The-one-in-the-little-bank-on-the-other-end-of-town," Rev replied.

Anger flashed in Peshe's eyes for a split second, and there was low murmuring coming from the room down the hall.

"Did they take _everything_?" Peshe asked.

"Box and all," Duck replied.

Peshe's eyes flashed again as he replied, "About a half-million in jewels was inside of that box." Ace and Rev's eyes widened in surprise, and Duck gave a low whistle. "Yes, those were very important to me," Peshe continued. "I'd _very_ much like to get them back. The sooner the better."

It was then that Peshe reached up to straighten his jacket. This wouldn't have been important, had Duck not seen something he wished he had noticed before. On Peshe's middle finger of his left hand, he wore a large ring made of silver with emerald inlay.

The ring was in the shape of a snake.

"Do you have any idea who may have taken them?" Peshe asked.

Rev was about to say something, but apparently, Ace had noticed the ring, too, and he discreetly jabbed Rev in the ribs with his elbow as he said, "We were actually hoping you might know."

Peshe raised his eyebrow and briefly glanced at the room down the hall, where the men were still murmuring to each other. If he noticed Ace jab Rev, he didn't say anything. Instead, he looked back at the Loonatics and said, "Excuse me for a moment."

He walked down the hall and into the room where he joined in the conversation, speaking something that sounded a lot like Italian. While he did that, Rev turned angrily to Ace and whispered, "What-was-_that_-for?"

"Didn't you see his ring?" Duck asked quietly. He turned to Ace and asked, "_You_ saw it, right?"

"Yeah, I did," Ace replied.

"Saw-_what_?" Rev asked indignantly.

"Peshe's ring," Ace replied. "It was a snake."

Rev gasped and his eyes widened in surprise. "A-snake-like-as-in-Kitty's-warning?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here," Ace interjected. "We're going on a cryptic warning from the walking fortune cookie. This could just be a coincidence. Not to mention Kitty's a criminal and could just be trying to cover her tracks. I don't think we should tell Peshe anything, though; he seems a little...eccentric."

"_That's_ an understatement..." Duck said sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

The three of them looked up just in time to see Peshe walk back into the room. "I apologize," he said, "but you caught me at a bad time, and I had to explain to my guests what was going on. Anyways, I'm sorry, but I can't help you. I have no idea who would take those gems, or how they could have gotten them."

"That's alright," Ace replied dismissively. "Thanks for your help."

"Any time," Peshe replied.

The Loonatics left the house and started walking away, talking about what had just happened.

"I don't like that guy," Duck stated immediately when they were out of sight of the house.

"Neither do I," Ace agreed, "but we still shouldn't go placing suspicion on the victim. How does it work out that _he's_ the bad guy here, anyway?"

No one had an answer to that, though Ace and Rev thought hard about how all of the pieces to this puzzle fit together on the way home.

Duck thought about the possibility of Kitty telling the truth when she said that she had a good reason for doing what she was doing.

__

_**Kitty's POV**_

I ran as fast as I could to Peshe's house. Thankfully, his neighborhood wasn't too terribly far away, and I was able to get up on a rooftop relatively quickly. I moved a lot quicker on the roofs than on the ground.

My phone also buzzed a few more times, but I rejected all of the calls. This was _not_ the time, though the number of calls let me know that something big was going on.

I knew right where I was supposed to go, and I found Peshe's house in about an hour and a half. I was worried that I had missed the Loonatics and they were already inside, but I immediately hit the deck when I saw three of the Loonatics walking up the street. The roof I was on was flat with a small ledge around the edge, and I peeked over it to see what was happening below.

Only three of the Loonatics were there; the yellow bunny, Ace; the red roadrunner, Rev; and the ever-present Duck. I really wished that they had left him behind on this one, but there was nothing I could to do change it. I could only watch sullenly as they met with Peshe at the doorway and walked inside.

I stayed there, stayed low, and waited. I had been on stakeouts before, but this one was different. I was going to wait for four hours. If the Loonatics didn't leave by then, then I would infiltrate the house and assess the situation from there.

Almost twenty minutes passed before anything happened, but I was very anxious and wound up at the time, so it felt like much longer to me. Then, a window on the side of the house opened up. I might have missed it at first if a lot of smoke hadn't come out of the window as it opened. Those guys really liked their Cubans.

A blonde guy who was probably in his thirties hopped out of the window, and he turned back around as someone handed a case to him. He took it, and ran off to a place where I couldn't see him from my perch. He reappeared again a few minutes later on the roof next to mine. For a moment, I was worried he would see me, but he was so focused on what he was doing, I doubted that he'd see me if I stood right in front of him and waved.

He opened the case and took out three parts to something that I immediately recognized. It was a some-assembly-required sniper rifle that came in three parts for portability's sake. It made me really happy that he chose to be on the roof next to me. He was now an easy target.

He assembled it, set it on top of the ledge of his rooftop, pointed it in the general direction of Peshe's house, and took something out of his pocket.

"I'm in position," he said curtly into whatever he was holding; probably a phone or walkie-talkie.

"Good," another voice replied. He had the volume turned up so loud, I could easily hear it from where I was. "Stay there until the marks leave the house."

"What do you want me to do?" the guy asked.

"What else is a sniper good for? Shoot them!" the voice snapped.

"_All_ of them?"

"Yes!"

"But I thought the boss said he wanted them alive?"

"These three know too much. There are still three more after these ones, so the operation won't be completely botched. Just stay there and do your job!"

He scowled and stuffed the device back into his pocket. He was obviously low-ranking, or he wouldn't be pushed around like that. He turned his attention back to his rifle and started fiddling with it as I figured out what I should do next.

'The marks' was old-school army intelligence talk for the targets, in this case, whoever that guy was going to shoot. I knew enough of what was going on to know that he was talking about the Loonatics. They had probably said or done something that made Peshe think they knew too much, and now he wanted them gone. This was the whole reason I came.

I was about to get up, when my phone buzzed again. Fortunately, the vibrator in the phone was almost completely silent, so the guy with the rifle didn't hear it, but I couldn't risk reaching for it. With the way the guy was positioned, he would probably see me if I moved too much. I army crawled backwards so I was behind him and waited for my phone to stop buzzing. One missed call; two more before it looked like something was wrong.

I silently stood up and stood still for a moment, waiting to see if the guy did anything to suggest he heard me. He didn't move, and even started quietly humming to himself. I walked as quietly as I could to the ledge of the roof I was on, and jumped.

The trick to landing quietly is in the jump. It's almost impossible to land silently on a long, distance jump, but this was only a few feet. I jumped as high into the air as possible, and landed on my toes on the neighboring roof. There was a slight tap as my boots hit the concrete, and I stood absolutely still to make sure the guy didn't hear me.

_This guy must be deaf,_ I thought when he didn't move.

Then, movement coming from Peshe's house caught my eye, and I still didn't move as Ace, Rev, and Duck emerged from the house. The guy moved the rifle and continued slightly shifting it, following them in his sights. He would fire at any second; now was my time.

I walked up behind him, let one of my katanas drop out of my sleeve, and held it up to the back of his neck as the blade shot out of the hilt. The blade made the same sound as a regular sword coming out of its sheath when it did that, and the guy immediately froze when he heard/felt it.

"I'd take your finger off of that trigger if I were you," I stated coldly. I didn't really care if he complied or not; the way I saw it, this would end badly for him either way.

He chose to do as I ordered, and he raised his hands in the 'don't shoot' position without getting up off of the ground. By then Ace, Rev, and Duck were directly across the street, but unless they looked up (which they didn't do,) then they wouldn't see me, even though I was standing up. Even if they did look, I would be able to disappear easily before they got to me; even before Rev.

"We weren't expecting _you_," the guy said to me as I watched the Loonatics walk out of sight, never taking my katana off of his neck. I would have to deal with him before following them.

"Stand up," I ordered. He slowly got to his feet, and I never took my katana off of him.

Then, in one fluid motion, I put my sword away, jumped up, and gave the guy a bone-breaking spin-kick to the back of his head. I heard something crack, but I didn't know if it was his neck or his skull. What I did know was that he fell on his face and didn't move again as his head started bleeding where I kicked him. He was either unconscious with a serious concussion if all I hit was his head, possibly paralyzed if I hit his spine, or dead if I completely snapped his neck. I didn't care either way; he wouldn't be able to tell anyone about what had happened for a while.

It may have been a bit ruthless, but that's how it had to be when dealing with these guys. It was a do-what-you-had-to-do-or-get-killed situation. In that case, that guy had to be silenced. The only upper hand I had left in this operation was that they didn't know exactly who they were dealing with. They probably knew by now that the group I worked with was involved, but they still didn't know who from my group they were dealing with. That was why I super-kicked the sniper guy instead of using my katana; blades were my signature. Almost all of us from my group who specialized in the thievery arts knew that move. It allowed us to do our jobs without giving anything away.

I was just about to leave when my phone buzzed. _Again_. I had a feeling that once the people I was working against figured out that the Loonatics had gotten away and someone from my group was definitely on to them, they would try something big. And I didn't want to be busy with my phone when it happened.

I started running towards the Loonatics HQ as I pulled my phone out of my pocket. That building could be seen for miles around, so it wasn't hard to find. It would still take me a while to get there, though.

"What could _possibly_ be so important that rejecting your call _half a dozen times_ didn't give you the message to call back _later_?" I snapped as I answered the phone, skipping the code. They would know it was me just by hearing me angry at them; no one could possibly mimic me when I was angry. It was just impossible to get as angry as I could, which was why no one wanted to be around me if I was mad. It was a little rude, sure, but it would help keep this call short.

"Don't be so testy," a suave voice with a slight British accent replied. He was _not_ who I was expecting; I was expecting my techie friend. He was usually the only one to call when we were on a job. I still knew and worked with the British guy, though I didn't like him at all. He was the biggest flirt in the history of flirts.

"Oh, great. What do _you_ want?" I asked angrily. "And this had better be quick! This is a _really_ bad time for me."

"Relax, my feline friend, this won't take long," he reassured. He sounded tired and worn out. He never sounded like that.

"What happened?" I immediately asked. I knew what he was going to say before he even said it, though. It was the call I had been dreading for days.

Even after receiving this piece of news, I continued on my way. I still had a job to do, and nothing was going to stop me.

**A/N: Okay, so either the next chapter or the one after that will have the 'big reveal' where you all figure out what's going on. It will probably be two chapters from now, but either way, it's coming soon. R&R!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: I apologize for the lateness of this, but we got stuck with my aunt when a tree took out a power line in a freak gust of wind and she freaked out, and she didn't STOP freaking out until the power came back on (a day later,) and then when I got back, I still had to type this chapter up, and as you can probably see, it's rather long. **

**Anyways, the 'big reveal' is next chapter, as I suspected it would be, but a lot of important stuff happens here. **

**WARNING: Violence! This is why this story is rated T!**

**acosta perez jose ramiro: Thanks!**

**kakashiluckyblackcat: Yeah, it is! XD And I meant to mention this earlier, but I absolutely LOVE your username! XD**

**Luna246: All of that will be explained in the next chapter. And I'll say this for everyone: No names of anyone Kitty works with other than Alec will be mentioned in this story. I will mention them in the future, but until then, they will remain unknown. You are all free to guess, however, and if anyone by some odd miracle gets it right, they will get the biggest cookie I can find!**

**Spudwick13: That is **_**totally**_** the wrong time to mention that! XD And I put a little description of how Kitty used to be in this chapter with you in mind! Most of it still applies to the present day Kitty. And believe it or not, I did have fun with the toaster. I succeeded in scaring the crap out of all of my aunt's cats with it! XD**

Ace, Rev, and Duck got back to their HQ a while later. By then, Lexi, Slam, and Tech were back, too. They were all in the living room (minus Tech, who was in the lab,) briefing each other on what they found. All-in-all, it wasn't much.

"So, the police didn't find anything else at the scene," Ace stated, "and Peshe was no help at all."

"I still don't like that guy..." Duck muttered, almost to himself. Rev nodded in agreement.

"I agree that something definitely wasn't right about him," Ace said, "but like I said before, it makes no sense that he's the bad guy in this equation based on what we know."

"Besides; I think we kind of have it down that Kitty is the bad guy, here," Lexi added.

"But-that-doesn't-mean-that-we-have-the-whole-story," Rev said. "Kitty-wouldn't-tell-Duck-almost-anything-when-they-met-and-that-leaves-a-lot-of-holes-to-be-filled-and-we-could-be-and-probably-are-still-missing-something-important-here."

"I'm with Rev on this one," Duck said. "Something doesn't add up."

"I think this might help," Tech said as he entered the room. He had gone to his lab right as they got back to do yet another marathon search session to find a pattern in the thefts.

"I take it you had a breakthrough," Ace stated in response to Tech's expression. He looked like a kid in a candy store.

"A _huge_ breakthrough," Tech replied. "I was looking through the data on how the items that were stolen got here and where they came from, and there was one name that popped up in every single file. It's the one thing that absolutely everything has in common, and I triple checked it to be sure. Everything got here in some way that involved Vincent Peshe."

"Wait..._what_?" Duck asked, completely bewildered. He had said he didn't like Peshe, but he hadn't actually been sure of whether he suspected him of anything or not.

"All of the jewels that were just taken from the bank were shipped directly from Italy by Peshe," Tech stated. "The piece of art that was taken from the museum was from an artist funded by Peshe, and Peshe himself donated the piece to the museum. The necklace taken in the Hawthorne robbery was sent from a P.O. box in Italy that was traced to a business owned by Peshe. The list goes on and on!"

"So Peshe _is_ linked to all of these crimes..." Duck murmured.

"The question is: Why?" Lexi asked.

"I think we can rule out Peshe as a victim," Tech said. "He would have said something about being connected so closely to a string of robberies, or reported it himself. I don't think he's being targeted in the traditional sense, either."

"Maybe-it's-an-insurance-scam," Rev suggested. "He's-having-all-of-his-stuff-stolen-so-he-can-make-a-buck."

"That's a good theory," Ace replied, "but don't think that's it. Kitty said to beware of the snake, suggesting Peshe, if 'the snake' really is in reference to him, is dangerous and we should stay away from him. If she was working with him, and she hasn't really tried hard to hurt us, then he wouldn't be much of a threat, either, leaving Kitty no reason to give us a warning."

"Until someone gives us the whole story, we may have absolutely no idea what's really going on," Tech speculated.

"Then we'll just have to roll with the punches for now," Ace stated.

None of them were too happy at that point. Most, if not all of the other criminals they had ever dealt with had been pretty straightforward. They weren't used to not knowing what was going on, and they didn't like it.  
><span><strong><br>~~~~~~~~~**

Later that evening, Duck was wandering around HQ on his own. He had been trying to figure out what Kitty's motives really were, and what Peshe's involvement in all of this was. Everyone had their own theories, but the not-knowing was bugging him the most. For the first time, he was able to think of explanations as to what was going on that involved Kitty having good motives. He still really wanted to believe that she had good intentions, despite all that had happened.

He turned a corner, still deep in thought, and almost walked headfirst into Rev.

"Whoa-! Uh, sorry, Rev," Duck said as he mentally collected himself.

"Duck-are-you-okay?" Rev asked with a look of concern. "You-seem-a-little-out-of-it."

"Uh, yeah, it's just that...I really want to believe that Kitty was innocent, but before, it didn't seem possible. Now, there are options where it is, and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it."

There was an uncomfortable moment of silence before Rev suddenly asked, "Hey-Duck-what's-Kitty-like?"

"Huh? Why do you want to know?" Duck asked quizzically.

"Well-you-gave-us-a-bit-of-a-description-earlier-but-it-wasn't-much-to-go-on-and-I'm-just-curious-I-guess."

"Okay, then. Hmm... She seems to have changed...quite a bit since I last saw her, so all I can give you is a description of the Kitty I knew." Rev nodded in understanding. "Where to start? She was...smart, I guess. Well, not academically; she didn't do very well in school. If she or someone else was in any kind of trouble, though, she always knew how to get out of it unscathed, whether or not it involved breaking any rules. She stood up for all of the younger kids and anthros; she was the only one who ever did. She was kind of a...big sister to us. She was one of the older kids there; she should be 23 or 24 now. She kept to herself mostly, but she was open with a few of us. She was a relaxed, tomboy-ish, carefree, kind of girl last I knew her."

"You-two-must-have-been-pretty-close," Rev said.

"Yeah, we were," Duck replied. "Which is why it's bugging me so much that she didn't tell me what's going on!"

"Aw-don't-worry-Duck-we'll-figure-it-out!" Rev said encouragingly.

"I'm just worried about what we'll find..."

Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked the building and almost sent Duck and Rev falling to the floor. They were near the top of the building, and the blast had taken place at the bottom, so they weren't injured, but something was very wrong.

"What was that?" Duck asked nervously as he regained his footing.

"I'm-not-sure-I'll-go-check-it-out-be-right-back!" Rev shouted behind his shoulder as he zipped away.

Duck only had to wait one minute for Rev to return, and he looked pretty frazzled when he did. "Duck-I-think-we-need-to-get-out-of-here-now!"

"Why? What's going on?" Duck asked urgently.

"There's-a-big-group-of-people-downstairs!" Rev explained frantically. "They-blew-open-the-front-door-and-they're-heavily-armed-and-_we-need-to-go_!"

"Can't we take them?" Duck asked. They _were_ super heroes after all.

"Hmm-let-me-think-we're-outnumbered-ten-to-one-if-not-more-and-they're-armed-with-guns-so-_NO_!"

"Alright, alright, alright!" Duck replied as he thought of possible escape routes. He was really happy that the rest of the team had left HQ earlier to do their own things; he and Rev could get out of the building easier than anyone else could. "What floor are they on now?"

"They're-already-more-than-halfway-up-the-building-so-you-can't-go-downstairs-to-grab-a-jetpack-or-anything," Rev replied as his eyes glowed signaling he was using his GPS. "Do-you-think-you-can-quack-down-to-the-street-from-here?"

Duck looked out of a nearby window. They were pretty high up. He couldn't quack very far, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to make it all the way down to the street. There were other things that he could reach, though, or at least get close enough to that wouldn't result in his hurting himself.

"See that building over there?" Duck asked Rev pointing down and across the street. He was pointing towards the tallest building in the area, other than their HQ. "I think I can make it to that."

"Okay-I'll-meet-you-on-top-of-the-roof," Rev said as he zipped off towards the roof of their building so he could take off.

Duck looked back nervously through the window down at the rooftop. It seemed miles away, but in reality it was only a couple hundred feet away. He hadn't tried quacking anywhere near that far since he had first gotten his powers and was experimenting to see how far he could go. He'd made a distance similar to it, but he'd been totally wiped out afterward. He could already see Rev flying towards the target building, and he could hear the yelling of the men right below him.

_It's now or never_, he thought as he gathered all of his energy. He clenched his eyes shut and let out a big burst of light as he quacked to the roof.

It took an extra second than it usually did, but he felt himself go somewhere, and he cautiously opened his eyes and was face to face with Rev. "Yes! I did it!" he shouted triumphantly. He then proceeded to fall the remaining five feet to the ground and landed roughly on his butt. It was then that he realized that Rev actually hadn't landed, yet. He felt completely wiped from all the energy he had used to teleport that great distance, and really hoped he wouldn't have to do anything like that ever again.

"Eh-close-enough," Rev commented as he touched down on the ground. They both turned around to look at their HQ. There was a large hole where the front door used to be, and there were a few people loitering around across the street to watch what was going on.

"...Think we should call the others?" Duck asked rhetorically.

Rev turned on his communicator and said, "Guys-we-have-a-slight-problem-over-here." Static. "...Guys?" More static. "..._Anyone_?"

"Well, let's look at the bright side; this can't get any worse, right?" Duck added sarcastically.

"Great-now-something-really-bad's-going-to-happen-because-you-said-that," Rev replied dryly, yet completely serious.

"How right you are," a male voice with a thick Italian accent said from behind them. They both flipped around to find that there were half a dozen men standing behind them, and they were all armed. All but the one who spoke to them had a gun of some sort pointed at the two Loonatics.

"Remind me to shut my beak next time," Duck told Rev nervously as he assessed the situation. He knew that Rev could be gone before these guys even knew what had happened, but he doubted that he had the energy to quack away. They could always try fighting their way out, but they weren't impervious to gunfire.

"And-you-all-would-be...?" Rev began.

"You'll figure it out in good time," the Italian man replied. "My boss wants to have a word with you."

"And if we refuse to go?" Duck asked.

"It wasn't a request," the man replied as he motioned to the men behind him. They raised their weapons, and Duck and Rev braced themselves for what was coming. They were prepared to start trying to fight their way out, but before they got the chance...

_CLANG_!  
><em><span><br>~~~~~~~~~_

_**Kitty's POV**_

I had been watching their HQ for a while, waiting for something to go wrong, as it inevitably would. I noticed all of the men loitering around the front door of the building, and when they started setting something up around the doorframe, I knew something was about to happen.

As usual, I was right. They blew in the front door and stormed the place. I was expecting them to do that, and I really wanted to go in and help the two Loonatics still inside (I had seen a bunch of them leave earlier,) but there was no way I could do anything. I knew about the security on the inside of the building, so I couldn't have warned them beforehand, and there was nothing I could do at that point; I was good at one-on-many fights, but a small army had just gone into that building, and every single one of them was armed.

I watched and waited for something to happen and, much to my surprise, a red streak that I recognized as Rev flew off of the roof of the tower and hovered over the roof of the building next to the one I was on. I was hiding on top of a water tower, and no one ever seemed to have an inclination to look up, so I figured I was safe there. A few seconds later, Duck appeared over the same roof, and I smirked as he landed roughly.

I was glad they had gotten out, but contrary to their beliefs, the two of them weren't out of trouble yet; a small group that I knew were with the army that had stormed the building a moment ago were sneaking up onto the roof behind them. The situation got bad fast, and I had to do _something_, so I pulled out a shuriken from the pouch on my belt, sat up a bit so I could aim, and threw it.

The resounding clang told me that I had hit my mark, and I watched with satisfaction as everyone paused to identify the location of the sound. They got their answer two seconds later when the barrels of all of the guns clattered noisily to the ground, making their guns useless. There was always a slight delay. They had all been standing in a line, so it had been pretty easy to do.

Chaos ensued on the rooftop. The men pulled out more assorted weapons (if they had them,) and started frantically looking around for me. None of them looked up, _again_. Rev and Duck were using the distraction to their advantage; they were quietly trying to slip away down the fire escape on the side of the building. They had to reach it first, though, but there was a lot of ground to cover. Those guys would remember what their job was any second, now, so I was going to have to do something. _Again_.

I stood up, got a short running start, and jumped across the gap between the roofs. I landed on the edge of the next roof, but before anyone had even registered that I was there, I leapt forward and gave a very hard kick in the chest to the first guy in line. He fell backward, and ended up taking the rest of his crew with him in a domino effect.

I turned back to Duck and Rev, who were staring at the carnage. They looked up at me, and I shouted in an exasperated tone, "What are you waiting for, an invitation? _Go_!"

Rev didn't hesitate, but Duck did for a moment. "_Now_!" I shouted as the men started getting up. He looked as if he really didn't want to, but after a moment, he ran off after his friend. He did it just in time, too; all of the men had gotten to their feet and were threateningly approaching me with their wide range of weapons. One of them had another gun, two had knives, and the other two had a bit of pipe and a crowbar. The last one, the first guy I hit, hadn't gotten up yet, and appeared to be unarmed. To me, they really weren't that big of a threat. I just had to deal with them quickly so I could catch up with Duck and Rev and explain to them what was going on, as I inevitably would.

The one who was apparently the leader of this rag-tag team, the one who still had a gun, said, "We knew one of you was around here, but we weren't expecting _you_." The rest of the men surrounded me in a wide circle.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah; I've already heard that," I replied dismissively as I pulled out both of my katanas. A few of them jumped back with frightened looks. "Now, if you'll excuse my brevity, I don't have all night."

The men simultaneously charged me. I gave a powerful jump upward, back flipped, and landed just in time to see all of them run into each other. I straightened up and smirked as they attempted to untangle themselves. Then, I heard a quiet click right behind me.

I didn't hesitate; I knew what to do in that kind of situation. I spun around while swinging one arm and slashing my katana. My arm knocked away the arm of the guy with the gun, and I heard a quiet put sound as I did so, meaning he used a silencer. It fired off into the air, missing anything it could possibly hit. Unfortunately, I missed contacting anything with my katana as the guy with the gun jumped backward. The good news was that he landed so that he was tottering on the edge of the roof.

I heard quickly approaching footsteps behind me, so I paused a moment so they could get closer, then sidestepped. He ran right past me, swinging his crowbar where my head had been a second ago, and couldn't stop in time. He tackled the other guy, and they both fell the ten-or-so stories to the ground.

_Two down, four to go_, I thought as I turned to face the others. They were facing me, weapons drawn. Two of them had a knife, and the other was the one with the pipe. The unarmed guy was slowly and painfully getting to his feet. I knew they wouldn't go for the old fall-off-the-building trick like their buddies just had, so I would have to deal with these three the old fashioned way.

One of them rushed me with his knife, and I leap frog jumped over him. Two others were just behind him, but I didn't dodge them; I met them head on. I gave the first one a hard right hook to the jaw, and at almost exactly the same time, I gave a fierce kick with my left foot to the other guy's chest. He flew backward, but I only winded him. It's hard to hit two guys at the same time.

I had just about enough of this, so I kicked it into high gear. I spun back around to face the guy I jumped over before while slashing my katana. He never saw it coming. I put a deep slash on his chest, and the hit was strong enough to cause him to fall over the edge of the building. I continued spinning around to do a full 360, but the first one of the two still standing ducked. The other raised his bit of pipe in an attempt to block my swing of my katana. It worked, barely; I almost sliced clean through it. My katana got caught in it, though, and he managed to wrench it out of my hand and throw it back.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, and I moved just in time to avoid being hit by the knife from the guy who had ducked. His friend wasn't so lucky; it hit him square in the chest, and he fell a split second later. I turned to look back at the guy who threw it, and he was looking at his friend in horror.

"That was very clumsy," I stated before slashing him with my katana. I gave him a deep wound below his ribcage, and I probably hit his liver, because he bled out in seconds.

I turned back to the guy who hadn't moved throughout that whole episode, the one who I first kicked while making my entry, only to find that he was gone. I ran over to the side of the building the fire escape was on and looked down, and sure enough, he was stumbling through the alley down below, running for his life, clutching his chest.

_I guess I broke something when I hit him_, I thought as I watched his sad attempt at running. I couldn't let him get away, though, so I pulled a throwing knife out of a pouch, took careful aim, and threw it as hard as I could. It spun through the air for a moment before planting itself in the guys back. He fell and didn't move again.

I turned around, grabbed my other katana, and wiped them both off on one of the dead guy's shirts before putting them away. I briefly looked around at the carnage before taking off across the rooftops in the direction I saw Rev and Duck take off in earlier. Sadly, this was a normal occurrence for me, but I couldn't let those guys go back to their boss and tell them I was hanging around. Them knowing that me specifically was here would make me lose a big edge, and I couldn't risk losing that. There was a lot at stake here, and I needed to stay alive long enough to see it through to the end.

**A/N: Don't say I didn't warn you. All will be explained in the next chapter, which sadly may be a little late. I have a lot of stuff going on next week, what with the start of summer school and all… You know, I don't really want to talk about it. I'll get it up ASAP. Until then, R&R!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Not to self: NEVER FAIL A CLASS AGAIN! Summer school is not fun, and I'm surprised I got this chapter done as fast as I did with the workload I'm getting! DX Anyways, after this chapter, you'll all know exactly what the heck's going on!**

**Spudwick13: Lucky… And thanks! I thought it was pretty average, actually… XD**

**acosta perez jose ramiro: Thanks a lot!**

**Luna246: Exactly!**

**kakashiluckyblackcat: Thanks!**

Rev had waited for Duck when he realized that the mallard hadn't followed him down the fire escape, but once he had joined him, they _ran_. Well, Duck ran; Rev was doing a light jog so as not to leave him behind. They kept moving until they, (meaning Duck,) couldn't run anymore. They had put a good distance between that rooftop and themselves, so they felt safe enough to take a break.

"Okay-that-was-_insane_-what-was-that-even-_about_-who-were-those-people-why-were-they-after-us-was-that-_Kitty_-why-was-_she_-there-and-why-did-she-_help_-us-where-?" Duck had chosen that time to grab Rev's beak to quiet him.

"I...have no idea...about any of that...other than the fact...that _was_ Kitty," Duck said, still gasping for breath a bit.

"Do-you-think-she's-okay?" Rev asked as he freed himself from Duck's grip.

"I hope so..." In reality, Duck wasn't so optimistic. Those guys seemed to know what they were doing, and it was one on six. Granted, Kitty did surprise them with her entrance, and she wasn't a bad fighter herself, but he was worried that she would get hurt or worse.

"It takes a lot more than that to stop me," a female voice said from behind them. They both screamed, jumped, and flipped around to look at who said that. It was dark in the alley they were in, and all they could see was the glint of light off of the person's eyes a few feet above them. She was on a part of a fire escape on the side of a building. "I get that you're jumpy and all, but that was _highly_ uncalled for."

"Kitty!" Duck exclaimed as she jumped down to the ground and stepped into the light. She wasn't a pleasant sight; she had a lot of blood on one of her arms. "Are you-?"

"It's not mine," she said curtly, referring to the blood. He fell silent at that. "Have you tried contacting your teammates?"

"Yeah-but-they-didn't-answer," Rev replied, not taking his eyes off of the blood.

"Try again," Kitty ordered. They didn't want to argue with her, so they did as they were told. Again, no reply. Kitty gave an annoyed hiss at this and paced around a moment before asking, "Do you have any ways of tracking them?"

"Back-at-the-tower..." Rev began, but it was enough to give his message.

"So, _no_, then..." Kitty stated. "You both still have your communicators? Ditch them."

"What? Why?" Duck asked as he looked at his communicator.

"Do you want those guys to find you again?" Kitty asked. "You may think they're on a 'safe frequency,' but unless you guys constructed the system they use entirely on your own, there's no such thing."

Rev and Duck looked at each other, at their comms, then back to Kitty. Rev was tempted to ask if they could trust her, but she _had_ just saved their lives. Duck pulled out his communicator and threw it behind him, and with another moment's heasitation, Rev did the same.

"I get that you two don't trust me entirely," Kitty began, "and you still don't know what's going on. But if you'll bear with me, I'll tell you everything. Just...not here. Come with me."

She started back up the fire escape at a speed that suggested that she did that regularly. When she reached the top, she looked back down at Duck and Rev, who still hadn't moved, yet. With one last look at each other, Rev flew up onto the roof with Kitty. Duck had gotten some of his energy back, and managed to quack up onto the roof with the other two. She took off across the rooftops, and Duck and Rev followed. Eventually they came to an old, dilapatated building.

Kitty looked as if she almost missed the landing on the roof, but she meant to do what she did. She jumped the gap, grabbed the edge of the roof, and swung her legs into a glassless window and landed inside. Duck and Rev followed, and they found themselves in a room with almost nothing inside. There was another small backpack like the one Kitty was wearing, another larger one, and small setup of what looked like a chemistry set in one corner near the door.

"What is this place?" Duck asked as he looked around the shabby room.

"It's where I've been staying the past few months," Kitty replied matter-of-factly.

"You've-been-staying-_here_?" Rev asked in disbelief.

"When you're on a job, you can't pick and choose. I'm just lucky that they haven't torn the place down yet," Kitty stated as she casually leaned against a wall and crossed her arms. "So, what do you want to know first?"

"How about why you're here," Duck suggested.

"Ah, yes. _That_. You see, I'm here to help you. By 'you,' I mean your whole team."

"Help-us-why-do-we-need-help?" Rev asked skeptically.

"Because those guys back on that rooftop and the guys in your HQ were just the beginning," Kitty stated gravely. "They're part of an almost-worldwide criminal group known as the Fratellanza."

"The Frata-_what_?" Duck asked.

"Fratellanza. Translated, it means 'brotherhood.' They're essentially the Italian Mafia version 2.0."

"The-Mafia-died-out-ages-ago," Rev said dismissively.

"Contrary to popular beliefs, they haven't. Well, okay, the version you're referring to has. They've just…evolved. They're more active than ever, and with a lot more influence. They've mostly stuck around in Europe and South America, but they're starting to stick their claws in here. They covertly do a lot of illegal things, and the governments in the countries they do them in along with police and intelligence agencies around the world are either bribed to ignore them, have been infiltrated and are now discreetly controlled by them, or too afraid of their power to do anything."

"What do they do that's so bad?" Duck asked incredulously.

"A better question is what _don't_ they do. If you can think of a certain area or type of crime, they do it. Blackmail, fraud, people traffiking, hired guns- whether hiring them or _being_ them, - fake ID's, dealing in black market goods... That's not even scratching the surface. They want to turn this into a worldwide operation; have control of all the crime in the world, essentially. With their power and numbers, they can do it. It wouldn't be easy, but possible."

"But-then-where-do-we-come-in?" Rev asked.

"If they get control of the city of Acmetropolis, it's only a matter of time until they get control of the world. A city as important, busy, and big as Acmetropolis would give them the push they need to get going. You guys are the only thing that stands between them and the city because unlike average police and government agencies, you guys know just about everything that goes on in this city. They wouldn't be able to keep any major operation going for any length of time. With you six out of the way, though, nothing stands between them and the city."

"So, the rest of our team is...?" Duck began nervously.

"They would have taken them alive unless they couldn't handle them, which isn't likely," Kitty replied semi-reassuringly. Duck and Rev visibly relaxed, if only a little.

"Then-we-have-to-go-help-them!" Rev exclaimed. "We-need-to-go-before-anything-bad-happens-come-on-Duck!"

"Uh, are you _crazy_?" Kitty asked as she shot up from her spot on the wall and grabbed Rev's retreating shoulder, which wasn't an easy task. "Those guys back there were just grunts; the lowest of the low ranks. They'll be guarding your teammates with higher-ups. They're harder to deal with, and there will be tons more of them. Going in just you two would be _suicide_!"

"But-we-have-to-help-them!" Rev shouted indignantly.

"I know that, and I'm not suggesting doing otherwise," Kitty replied calmly. "Look at this." She went over to the smaller backpack, opened it, and pulled out a silver bracelet with what appeared to be a large ruby in the center. "I haven't dealt with all of this stuff yet, so I can still show you this." She went to the area with the chemistry set and came back with a hammer and a small bowl with a clear substance. She set the bracelet and the bowl on the ground, and held the hammer over the jewel. "This is something from Peshe's safety deposit box. Stand back and just watch."

She whacked the jewel with the hammer and, much to their surprise, it broke. Real gems don't break that easily. It was hollow on the inside, and a thick-grained powder fell out of it. Immediately, Duck and Rev got a headache, and felt weak.

"What is that stuff?" Rev asked slowly. He immediately noticed his slower voice.

"Pure curium," Kitty replied. "It's far more potent than the 247-variety you're familiar to. I heard about Ace's stunt with tricking Pinkster, and contrary to his belief, that stuff wouldn't kill him. _This_ stuff, on the other hand, would kill you guys if you got too close to it, and me if I touched it; it's toxic. But, if I do this," she poured the liquid over it. It sizzled, steamed, and Duck and Rev felt a lot better as the steam cleared to reveal that the powder had disappeared. "-it goes away. Do you know of Peshe's involvement in moving this stuff here, yet?" Duck and Rev nodded. "He's _very_ high up in the Fratellanza, and he was chosen to head the Acmetropolis operation. He had the curium secretly shipped here inside of valuables with large gems. Before shipping them, he replaced the large gems on them with hollowed out fakes containing the curium. They're made of a substance that can be differently colored and hides the effects of the curium."

"So-Peshe-was-going-to-use-this-stuff-to-get-rid-of-us?" Rev asked in horror.

"Pretty much," Kitty replied. "He was going to use it to get rid of you..._cleanly_, the word would be, I guess. He would take you all back to your HQ afterward, and it would appear as if you all suddenly dropped dead. There would be no conclusive cause, and the Fratellanza, a group that doesn't exist according to the police, would never be suspected."

"Okay, that's freaky," Duck stated. "...But then, why are you specifically here?"

"I was sent here to stop them and, should that fail, help you," Kitty replied. "I was best qualified for this job."

"Sent-by-who?" Rev asked. "And-how-do-you-know-about-all-of-this?"

"Because I work for a group known only to the Fratellanza. They call us the Nonexistants."

"The Nonexistants?" Duck repeated confusedly.

"I'm guessing you tried looking me up when you first figured out about my involvement in all of this. Don't tell me; you found nothing," Kitty stated smartly. "I'll get to more on that in a minute. What we do is fight against the Fratellanza. We're the only ones who do, and this world would be a lot more messed up than it already is if we didn't screw with their plans. For example, I've been stealing a lot of the stuff they had shipped over here before they could get their hands on it and get the curium inside. And then I.._dealt with_ the sniper on the roof near Peshe's place when you guys were leaving, and then the guys on the roof back there."

"There was a sniper at Peshe's?" Duck asked in shocked disbelief. Kitty nodded.

"By-'dealt-with'-I-take-it-you-mean-you-killed-them," Rev said as he gestured to the blood on Kitty's jacket. "Isn't-that-a-little..._extreme_?"

"Probably, but it's completely necessary," Kitty replied seriously. "It's either kill or be killed, but that's just with Fratellanza guys. Those not involved in the big scheme of things are not to be touched unless absolutely necessary, and even then it has to be as minor as possible."

Duck and Rev looked at each other. They were thinking the same thing; it wasn't much of an excuse.

Kitty picked up on this and sternly said, "Listen to this; when I first joined the Nonexistants, we were a huge group. There were about a hundred of us worldwide. We grew a little more, peaked, and then started _dropping_ _like_ _flys_. We now number thirty fo- three... Thirty three..."

Kitty trailed off and looked sadly at the floor. She walked back over to the wall and slid down to the floor.

"Did you...just lose someone?" Duck asked tentatively.

"I got the call a couple of hours ago," Kitty replied as she tiredly ran a hand through her hair. "He was a good friend of mine; Alec. He was on a job, like I am now, but the Fratellanza caught on to him."

"So-they-killed-him?" Rev asked, slowly for him but still faster than average.

"No," Kitty replied solemnly. "The Fratellanza don't kill us if they can help it; they capture us, and do whatever they can to get information about the rest of us from them if you catch my drift. We trust each other immensely, but we can't risk getting captured." She reached down to her belt and took off a removable part of the buckle. She showed the back to them, and revealed a small compartment where she had been hiding a small, green, pill-like capsule. Rev's eyes widened in shock, but Duck had no idea what it was, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know. Rev would later tell him it was a cyanide capsule.

She put it back onto her belt as she said, "Alec marks the fifth time someone has had to use those." She paused a moment before continuing. "You guys don't realize how dangerous what we do is. The police aren't a problem for most of us, they're just a minor annoyance. It's just _them_; the Fratellanza. We put our lives on the line every day to try finding ways to stop them, or ways to show the world they exist. None of us should be alive now as it is..."

"Why's that?" Duck asked.

Kitty sighed and thought for a moment before replying. "When I was 16, I was at a group home for teenage girls. I never got adopted, and I was in-between foster homes at the time. I was coming home from school one day, and I decided to take a shortcut through a back alley. It turned into a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; I came upon a major deal between some _very_ high up members of the Fratellanza and a group of local politicians. I got away, but they came after me. They couldn't risk me telling anyone about what I saw, so they wiped me from existence; copies of my birth certificate, social security number, anything about me on any database…gone. After that, they sent a mercenary after me to make me 'dissapear.' I was helped by the Nonexistants, and I would have gone back to a normal life if I had the option. But according to the rest of the world, I didn't exist anymore, not to mention the Fratellanza was still after me, so I joined up with the Nonexistants. All of our stories are similar in certain aspects, but the one thing that we all have in common is that we shouldn't be alive today, and thanks to the Fratellanza, we don't exist, hence our name. Most people the Fratellanza want gone don't get so lucky."

They all paused a moment as the seriousness of everything Kitty had just said set in. Rev mostly pondered on how no one had caught on to the Fratellanza's existence, yet, or the Nonexistants', and how many lives had been ruined and/or ended because of them. Duck mostly thought about what Kitty had said happened to her. He was horrified, and deeply regretted ever suspecting her.

"Hey, Rev, right?" Kitty asked as she stood up and looked at them. "You have some kind of power that lets you track people, right?"

"Yeah-I-do-how-did-you-know-that?" Rev asked.

"We have a pretty good techie," Kitty replied with a smirk. "Can you figure out where your teammates are?"

"Yeah-but-it-might-take-a-minute-and-that's-if-they're-still-in-the-city-but-if-"

"That's great, but we don't have a lot of time, so if you could please start working on that?" Kitty interrupted.

Rev's eyes started glowing red as he started scanning the city with his GPS. Kitty started rifling through her backpacks and putting a lot of gear into one of the smaller ones. Duck stood by awkwardly for a moment before walking up to Kitty.

"Hey, uh...Kitty?" he asked tentatively.

"Yeah?" she replied, never stopping going through her backpacks.

"I just wanted to say...sorry for suspecting you."

She stopped what she was doing and looked up at him. "It's not like you didn't have a good reason to," she replied with a smirk. Duck knew Kitty enough to know that he was forgiven.

"And one other thing... What did you mean when you said you were best qualified for this?" Duck asked curiously.

Kitty turned back to her work as she explained, "Everyone in the Nonexistants has special 'areas of expertise,' as we call them. One of my specialties is thievery. There's only one other guy who has the skills to do this job; one other guy who's both a good thief and a good fighter. The reason I was chosen over him was because I'm a better fighter, and I think better on my feet."

"Ah."

"I-found-them-I-found-them!" Rev shouted excitedly.

"Good. You lead the way," Kitty said as she stood up and slung her pack over her shoulder. "Duck, try to keep up."

Rev flew out the window, and Kitty jumped out after him. Duck looked out the window for a moment, and followed them off into the night.

He was really hoping they got there in time. There was a lot riding on them, and if they failed...

He decided not to dwell on the consequences and instead focus on keeping up with Kitty and Rev.

**A/N: And now you all know what the heck's going on! I'd love to hear your reactions to all of this in a review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Sorry this was so late, but my great aunt died, so we had to go back to Delaware for the funeral, and we just got back. Luckily, my dad let me bring my laptop this time, so I got a chapter done! **

**Anyways, this is kinda the big final-battle that's in every story. Enjoy!**

**Luna246: Thanks! And yeah, I noticed! XD**

**Spudwick13: I frown upon skimming, so I make it impossible! XD And I try to be unpredictable… And I'm the type of person who plans out her stories completely before starting to write them, so, I'd hope it seems that way. I'm usually a big fan of winging it, but not when it comes to writing!**

**EliteKessu: Thank you! And here's what happens next! **

Ace woke up with a headache and a foggy memory. The last thing he remembered was going to the park to get some ice cream from the ice cream cart, and then...

He shot up, fully awake, as he remembered what had happened. He was alone, in an isolated area of the park, when a large group of men jumped him. He remembered them being armed, but before he could do so much as pull out his sword, something hit him on the back of the head, and he had been out like a light.

His first move was to instinctively reach for his sword, and he didn't like finding it gone. He then looked around and saw that Tech, Lexi, and Slam were right next to him, all of whom were also just waking up. They were enclosed in a large, bubble-like cell with a flat bottom that was close to, if not exactly like the one they had been stuck in when they had faced Optimatus for the first time. There was a control panel for it near them. They appeared to be in a warehouse-type building, and there was no one else there that they could see. It was probably four stories tall, and crates of varying shapes and sizes were stacked about the room, making it impossible to see the back wall.

"Why does this feel so familiar?" Ace asked as he looked around, thinking of the last time he was stuck in the bubble-like contraption.

"Because it _is_ familiar," Tech replied groggily as he opened his eyes and looked around. "This looks exactly like the cell Mastermind is in back at the prison, so I wouldn't try using your powers if I were you. We all remember what happened _last_ time someone tried that…"

"What happened?" Lexi asked as she sat up.

"No clue," Ace replied. "One second I was at the park and then..._ambush_."

"Ditto," Tech responded.

"Same," Lexi added.

"Uh, huh. Ambush," Slam agreed, his words barely recognizable.

"Hey, wait," Lexi started as she took a look around. "Where are Duck and Rev?"

"They were still at HQ, right?" Ace asked. "Maybe they didn't get caught. If anyone can make an escape, it's those two."

"Unfortunately for your friends, I don't think you're correct," a man said as he walked into view from behind some crates. Ace immediately recognized him, and his odd taste in clothing tipped off the others as to who he was. He was wearing a bright crimson suit, tie, and hat, with a black shirt.

"Peshe!" Ace exclaimed as the short Italian approached the cell. "What's going on, here?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Peshe replied dismissively. "Well, _partly_, anyway."

"Where are Rev and Duck?" Lexi asked angrily.

"Miss, if I knew, they'd be in there with you right now," Peshe replied in an exasperated tone. "I haven't heard back from the team I sent after them yet, so I'm assuming that they're on their way. Based on their communicators' locations, though, it appears as if they ditched them."

"You can track our communicators?" Tech asked incredulously.

"It wasn't very difficult."

"What's this all about, Peshe?" Ace asked. "What's your game?"

"I suppose I can tell you while we wait for your friends to arrive..." Peshe acquiesced as three men came out from behind some crates, one of them carrying a large box. "Long story short, the people I work for want you all gone in the cleanest way possible, and that's why I'm here. This is how we'll do it."

He gestured to the box the one man was holding. The guy set it down on a small crate, and opened it to reveal a large amount of a powder-like substance inside. It was a good few yards away from them, but even so, Ace, Tech, Lexi, and Slam all felt a headache coming on. Tech immediately knew what the substance was, unlike the others, who had no idea.

"I see at least _one_ of you knows what this is," Peshe said slyly as he walked close to the box. "Pure curium. Deadly to you if you get close enough to it. And despite attempts to..._derail_ this little operation, I have just enough to do the job. That is, when my men finally decide to come back with your friends."

Suddenly, Duck appeared, quacking to the top of a pile of crates where everyone could see him. "Hey, Peshe! Looking for me?" he shouted, instantly getting the attention of everyone in the room.

"I was wondering when you'd show up to help your friends," Peshe called up to him smugly. "Why don't we just make this easy for everyone and skip to the part where we lock you up with them?"

"You've got to catch me, first!" Duck yelled teasingly as he quacked away.

"After him!" Peshe yelled as he took off after the mallard. The three men followed him, and a few more poured out of their hiding places and also followed.

"...Well that was different," Tech stated confusedly.

Lexi looked around for a moment, then asked, "Wait, if Duck's here, then where's-?"

"I'm-right-here!" Rev exclaimed as he flew down from the rafters and onto the floor.

"Rev, what's going-" Ace began before he was cut off.

"I'm-sorry-Ace-but-I-don't-have-time-to-explain-right-now," Rev interrupted as he pulled out a canister he was holding with him. He flew back up on top of a pile of crates that towered right next to the crate the box of curium was on, and dumped the canister. The clear liquid inside landed right on the curium, and it fizzed, sizzled, and then disappeared. Everyone immediately felt better.

"Rev, what did you just-" Tech began.

"_Later_!" Rev interrupted as he flew back down to ground level and up to the control panel. He started working at it at a very Rev-like pace, trying to open the bubble-cell in a quick amount of time so they could get out of there.

__

Duck was sprinting around the crates, trying successfully to avoid Peshe and his men. He would have just quacked away, but he wanted them to be able to follow him.

He ran towards the back of the warehouse, heading for the exit he knew was there. He dashed out of it, Peshe and his men hot on his heels. He ran the short distance to the building next door and ran in through the large loading-bay door, leading the others in with him. It was an old factory that was still in use, but deserted by that time of night.

He ran a good distance into the building before quacking anywhere. He went right outside of the door he had just used to get in. From there, he could see the very confused-looking Fratellanza men on the inside.

Before they knew what happened, Duck closed the door and locked it, giving them no other way out. He quacked his way back to Rev afterwards.

"How's it going?" he asked Rev.

"This-is-a-hard-program-to-crack-it-might-take-me-a-while-could-you-maybe-help?" Rev asked, never looking up from the control panel.

"Sure thing," Duck replied as he got to work.

"Are either of you going to tell us what's going on any time soon?" Lexi asked, not bothering to hide her annoyance.

"_No time_!" Duck and Rev yelled at the same time, never looking up from their work.

_~~~~~~~~~_

_**Kitty's POV**_

I had to admit; Duck and Rev did a good job. Things were going exactly as planned, and I had them to thank. But it was time to do my part.

Once we had gotten to the building the Loonatics were being held in, I had gotten close to get the lay of the land while Duck and Rev hung back. I had gotten the general idea of who-or-what-was-where, and I was able to come up with a plan almost instantly. Like I said, I was good at thinking on my feet.

Rev was supposed to wait until Duck did his part, then get rid of the curium and start helping the others. Duck was supposed to draw the Fratellanza guys away from there, lure them into the factory building, lock them in, then go help Rev. Once their friends were free, they were all supposed to get the hell out of there. Now, I got to do my part; getting rid of the Fratellanza guys.

I was on the roof of the warehouse, and once I saw Duck leave the factory, I sprung into action. I jumped off of the roof, and used my grappling hook to catch on to the roof of the factory and swing the gap, retracting the cable all the while so I would land on a windowsill about three stories up. The window was broken, so I had a clear way in.

I quietly walked along some rafters that were up at the same height as the window, and once I got to the middle of the factory, I looked down. There was a total of eight men, all armed, in different parts of the factory, searching for a way out and the remaining Loonatics. I saw one guy in the back corner of the factory, so I decided to start with him and work my way out.

I quickly made my way across the rafters, careful not to make any noise. It wouldn't have really mattered if I did, though; no one ever seemed to have an inclination to look up. I was just being careful. I reached a spot where I was almost directly above my target, and I leapt to the ground. I was still three stories up, but I was a cat, so I could make that kind of jump easily. Even so, I cushioned my fall by landing on the guy. I landed directly on his chest, and I heard a lot of something's snap. If he wasn't dead already, he would be soon; it wasn't easy to breathe with a lot of broken ribs. I knew _that_ from experience.

I stealthily made my way through the factory to the area where I remembered seeing another guy. However, in the time it had taken me to deal with the first guy, another one had joined the second one, so there were two I had to deal with, now.

I hid behind a piece of machinery and watched them, trying to figure out how to get rid of them without alerting the others to my presence. They walked closer to me, and ended up stopping right in front of the machine I was hiding behind. Before they got the chance to look behind it, I pulled my fighting stick out of my pocket, sprang to me feet, held my stick between them, and pushed the button to extend it. It hit them both on the sides of their heads, and they both staggered backwards, dazed and confused. I hopped over the machine so I was standing between them, and before they could react, took out two throwing knives and spun. I gave one a very deep slash across his chest, spun around, and jammed my other knife up under the second guy's ribcage, instantly killing him.

I heard something move a little ways behind me, and I didn't think, I acted. I spun around and threw the knife I was still holding. It spun around in the air for a moment, and before the guy who had tried sneaking up on me could react, it went clean into his chest where his heart should have been.

_Four down,_ I thought, _four to go._

I took off down another pathway between machinery, and soon came up on another guy. He had his back to me, so I took advantage of it. I pulled out three shuriken, and ran out from behind my hiding place while simultaneously throwing them. They planted themselves in the guy's back, and he fell over.

I quickly made my way through the rest of the factory, but I didn't see the other three for quite some time. Then, right as I got to the other end of the factory, I found two of them. They were messing with the loading-bay door they had used to get inside, trying to get it open. Well, one of them was; the other guy was probably supposed to be guarding the first guy, only he was casually leaning against the door, talking with the first guy while he worked on getting it open.

There was a lot of space between here and the door, so sneaking up on them was out of the question, and I couldn't throw two throwing knives in quick succession and be accurate. So, I just decided to screw it and rush them. There was only one guy left after this, anyways.

I sneaked over so I was against the far wall. That would give me a little bit of time so they wouldn't immediately see me coming. I pulled out my twin katanas and dashed out of my hiding place. I almost made it all the way there, when the one working at the door looked up for a moment. His eyes widened when he saw me, and he shouted, "Look out!" His buddy turned just in time for me to slice him from his left shoulder down to his right hip. His fried tried pulling his gun on me, but he was using a long-barreled automatic, and before he could get it all the way around, I used one katana to slice the barrel, and the other to run the guy through.

_And then there was one..._

I turned around and slowly looked around, expecting to see the last guy cone running at any second, but no one came. That worried me a bit, so I started slowly walking back into the maze of machinery, keeping my katanas out. I would've just used my grappler to go back up on the rafters, but the last guy would definitely see me, so I would just be a moving target for his gun.

I turned a corner, and ducked just in time to avoid an oncoming fist. And it was a _big_ fist, attached to an even _bigger_ guy. He aimed a kick at me while I was still low to the ground, but I did a backwards summersault to avoid it. He raised his gun to fire at me, but I quickly slashed with my katana. I nicked the barrel, making it useless, but what I had really been aiming for was his hand.

He yelled and dropped the gun, and I thought he was distracted enough for me to try running him through. I tried it, but unfortunately for me, this was what he was expecting. He grabbed my outstretched arm in his good hand, and twisted it behind me while grabbing my other hand. Both of my katanas clattered to the ground, and he put one arm around my neck to keep me from moving. I had been in that position before, though, and I knew how to get out of it.

I kicked off of the ground, hard, as if I was going to back flip over him. My legs went up and over his head, and I bent my torso so that my head slipped out from under his arm. He didn't let go of my arm until I was half way over him, though, and I felt something pop out of place. No big deal.

I landed, crouched, and did a leg-sweep that knocked the astonished gorilla of a man to the floor. I pulled out a throwing knife and stabbed him in the back, ending that fight. I popped my shoulder back into place as I grabbed my katanas off of the floor. I was one of those people who could dislocate and re-locate their shoulders at will, which came in handy; I did that maneuver a _lot_.

As I thought about all of the guys I had just gotten rid of, making sure I had eight, I realized something that made my blood run cold. _Peshe wasn't there_.

I used my grappler to get back up on the rafters, and moved as fast as possible to get back to the warehouse. I had a feeling that was where he was.

__

Duck and Rev were still furiously working at the control panel, trying to free their friends. They were getting nowhere fast, though, even after Tech started trying to help them from where he was.

"...After you do that, then try overriding the security protocols. To do that, reset the system, so to the setup screen, and disable anything under the security tab. Then, if that doesn't work, you can always hack directly into the system for this bubble by opening up the DRM file for the cell, and going through the code until you find a loophole, which should look like-"

"Tech, you lost me a while ago," Duck stated as he continued randomly trying anything to get the cell open.

"I-know-I-can-usually-keep-up-with-you-Tech-but-I'm-not-really-sure-where-I-am-either," Rev agreed.

"Well, we aren't going anywhere anytime soon..." Lexi stated.

"Oh-just-give-us-a-few-minutes!"

"I'm afraid you don't have that long," a familiar voice stated coldly from behind them. Everyone immediately snapped around.

"Peshe!" the Loonatics all exclaimed simultaneously as they faced him (except for Slam, who just shouted incoherently.) He was standing about twenty feet away from Rev and Duck, holding a pistol in his hand pointed at them.

"I-thought-you-said-you-got-rid-of-them!" Rev hissed to Duck.

"I thought I did!"

"Well-obviously-not!"

"Gentlemen, please!" Peshe exclaimed. "I've had enough problems with you Loonatics without having to listen to one of your arguments! And with one of the Nonexistants here-" he said with a sideways glance at the empty box of curium, "-I need to make myself scarce. _Quickly_. I can't do that without getting rid of you first, though, so if no one has any objections, I'll just shoot you all now and get it over with!"

Duck and Rev were getting ready to quack and run away, respectively, but before Peshe could fire, something came flying in and hit his hand. He cried out, sending the gun flying, as a lone shuriken landed on the ground a few feet away. Everyone looked up just as Kitty jumped down from a pile of crates and landed cleanly on her feet. Ace, Tech, Lexi, and Slam immediately recognized her from Duck's picture.

"I can think of a few people who might have a problem or two with that," she stated snidely to Peshe.

"Oh. I wasn't expecting _you_," Peshe said as he looked her over. They were about ten feet away from each other, with Kitty between Peshe and the Loonatics. "I knew _one_ of you was here, but personally, I was expecting-"

"Why does _everyone_ in the Fratellanza always say that?" Kitty asked exasperatedly, cutting him off. "I mean _really_, it's not that uncommon for me to be out on assignment! Contrary to popular belief, I'm not the only thief around here!" Ace, Lexi, Tech, and Slam looked very lost, but they stayed silent. Rev and Duck saw their opportunity, and they got back to work at the control panel; the figured Kitty would be able to handle Peshe.

"We seem to have a knack for underestimating you," Peshe speculated dryly.

"I thought I taught you that lesson last time we met," Kitty sneered. "Where was that? L'viv? Ivano-Frankivsk? Somewhere around there..." Kitty was trying to keep him talking to stall for time.

"Yes, and I won't make that mistake again..." Peshe muttered as he rubbed a spot on his side uncomfortably.

"Oh, so I _did_ hit you last time!" Kitty exclaimed gleefully. "I could've sword I missed! You know, not that I'm complaining."

"I'm sure," Peshe said distractedly. Then, he suddenly dove to the floor and rolled, grabbing his gun back. Kitty ran for cover as Peshe rolled into a kneeling position and started firing at her. She darted behind a crate, which was promptly filled with holes. She ran back out the other side, and threw shuriken after shuriken at him. He took to his feet and ran, all but one missing him.

He stopped and ripped out the sharp object protruding from his shoulder as he looked to see where Kitty went, but the cat was nowhere to be found. Even the Loonatics, who had been intently watching the fight, had no idea where she went.

Peshe turned back around to face the Loonatics with a murderous look in his eye, just as Kitty darted out from a nearby crate. He couldn't react in time, and was promptly punched under the chin. His head snapped back, he lost his hat, and he staggered back a few steps. Before he could recover, Kitty swung another punch at him that hit him square in the gut, and he doubled over, winded. Kitty then kneed him in the face, making stagger back even more. Then, Kitty gave him a powerful roundhouse kick to the chest that sent him flying backward and onto the floor, seemingly out cold.

She turned around to face the dumb-struck Loonatics with a smirk on her face. "What?" she asked in response to the looks she was getting. "Just because I prefer to use blades doesn't mean I don't know how to street-fight. Besides; I'd rather leave _him_ for the police."

"So...wait...you're a _good_ guy?" Lexi asked confusedly.

"You two didn't explain?" Kitty asked Duck and Rev.

"We-didn't-think-there-was-time-and-we-were-kind-of-busy-working-on-_this_-thing-trying-to-get-_that_-thing-open," Rev explained. Then, his eyes widened in surprise and he yelled, "Kitty-look-out!"

Kitty spun around as Peshe suddenly sat up and shot at her. Rev had seen him reaching into his jacket for something, but wasn't quick enough in warning Kitty; Peshe pulled out a spare handgun from inside of his jacket and fired. There was a spatter of blood, Kitty cried out, and then she fell face-down to the floor and didn't move again.

The Loonatics all stared at this in a shocked silence, the single gunshot still ringing in their ears, before looking up at Peshe. "Playing possum; a very useful technique if used correctly." He stepped around Kitty's motionless body and started approaching Duck and Rev first, gun pointed at them. Rev was preparing to dart out of the way, but Duck's eyes were locked on Kitty. "I've had just about enough of this! _First_ I've had to deal with the stress of keeping up with you, _then_ I've had to stay in my house with however many guards so as not to be killed by _her_, and _now_ I'm going to be stuck cleaning this mess up _myself_ in order to keep my cover! I was told that this would be an _easy_ job, for chrissake! Hmm...I'll just take it up with the higher-ups later. At least now it's all over."

He stopped when he was standing a little over five feet away from Duck and Rev, both of whom were now getting ready to use their respective means of escape. However, if they went away, then nothing was standing between Peshe and the other four. If they stayed, though, then they would have to deal with Peshe. They weren't sure of what he was capable of, and neither one wanted to get shot.

Peshe raised his gun, taking aim at the two Loonatics, and then stopped. He stood absolutely still for a moment. Then, his face fell, and he keeled over. That was when everyone noticed the throwing knife planted in his back.

Everyone simultaneously looked over to see where Kitty had been lying a moment earlier, and they were stunned to see her in a crouching position, one arm extended as if she had just thrown something, and the other hanging motionless at her side. There was a noticeable hole in that sleeve of her jacket on her upper arm, and blood was trickling out of it.

She half-smirked and said, "You guys are just lucky I can throw right-handed. Unfortunately for me, I'm a lefty."

"But-! You-! Just-! How-?" Duck spluttered.

"Like he said; playing possum," she replied smartly. "Not to mention Peshe's a lousy shot. Have you two tried the big blue button, yet?"

"Huh?" Duck started, but Rev remembered a large blue button on the control panel. He turned around, pressed it, and the bubble-like cover on the cell retracted.

"How-did-you-know?" Rev asked incredulously.

"It's always some big, colored button," Kitty replied dismissively as she stood up, grabbing her arm with a pained look.

"Uh, are you-?" Duck began to ask.

"I'll live," Kitty interrupted curtly. "What about you guys?"

"We're-all-okay," Rev replied.

"So...you _are_ a good guy?" Lexi asked again, more to verify what she knew than anything else.

"You'll get the full story later, but in a nutshell, yes," Kitty replied.

All talking ceased as everyone turned around to sounds coming from outside. They were approaching sirens, and it sounded like there were a lot of them.

"That would be the police," Tech stated matter-of-factly. "Probably coming because of the gunshots."

"How are we going to explain all of this to them?" Ace asked. "Heck, how are going to explain this to Zadavia?"

"And with the police around, what are you going to do, Ki-?" Lexi started to ask as she turned back to Kitty, then abruptly stopped talking. Ace, Tech, Rev, and Slam all turned, and were equally stunned with the sight that met them.

She was gone, along with the blood from her wound proving that she had been there.

"Yeah, she does that," Duck stated, smiling to himself, never turning around.

**A/N: Next chapter will be a wrap-up of sorts, and after that, **_**done!**_** But until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts in a review!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: HOLY COW! Six reviews for one chapter! I feel special… XD (Half-page A/N! Jeez!) Thanks to all of my readers! And as you can probably see, this is a short epilogue, but there wasn't much left to wrap up, so this is all there is.**

**In other news, I received a couple of questions about a sequel. Well, I'll say this: I'm definitely not done writing, but I'm planning on doing a story or two, THEN bringing Kitty back. She'll show up… You'll just have to wait for it. XD**

**EliteKessu: Ninjas rule! XD And yes, yes it is. :'(**

**Mensis Eclipse: Thanks! I was going for something suspenseful, so I'm glad I hit it!**

**kakashiluckyblackcat: Yes, yes I am. XD I can't just leave it like this! There's so much more I can do with this! **

**Spudwick13: That's how I feel! ;~; GASP! Shame! No skimming! XD And yes, I am. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it, but Kitty WILL come back in the future!**

**Luna246: Well, I wasn't going to kill of my OC in my first story. Where's the fun in that? XD And there's been a good bit of death in this story… Only of random, unnamed bad guys, though!**

**acosta perez jose ramiro: Thanks!**

A lot had happened in the hours after Kitty left. Before the police got there, Rev and Duck had practically begged the others not to mention any of what had happened to the cops. They had said that they didn't have time to explain the whole story, but they would later, when there was time. The others agreed to keep the police in the dark, at least for the time being.

The police stormed the place, and were very confused to find all of the dead men and the Loonatics. Rev and Duck had quickly fabricated a story about how they had just arrived minutes earlier, (after dealing with an explosion in Tech's lab that blew up their HQ,) and had no idea what was going on. They decided to let the police draw their own conclusions.

A little while later, the Loonatics had gone back to their HQ. They had called up Zadavia, and that was when Duck and Rev explained the whole story. Lexi and Slam believed it immediately, Tech thought it was too far-fetched, Ace didn't immediately believe it, (though he did admit that it explained everything,) and Zadavia didn't give any indication of whether or not she believed anything; she had just said she would do some research on the Fratellanza and Nonexistants and get back to them. She did say to not tell the police about anything until they had proof, first, though.

A little while later, she had called them back. She had found repeated reports of mysterious incidents such as a number of men being found dead at a crime scene with no evidence as to who did it, or a string of crimes that seemingly had no connection to each other, and stopped after a while, or some person being helped by another person who didn't exist, and the most prominent finding were reports on missing persons sites where the missing person in question had no birth record or social security number, yet had someone out there looking for them who insisted that they existed. All skepticism vanished from the room at this.

They had decided not to tell the police about any of this. Despite everything that had happened, they still had no conclusive proof of anything, and besides, they didn't want to make the Nonexistants job any harder than it was. Zadavia would be keeping a special eye out for anything that appeared to be Fratellanza-related, though.

And after all this had ended, Duck had decided to go for another walk on his own. He was still trying to process what had happened, and wanted to be alone for a bit. He was also hoping to run into Kitty again, but he knew it was unlikely.

He really wanted to see her, though. He had been terrified when he thought she was dead, and he wanted to make sure she was alright. Plus, he wanted to thank her for saving their skins.

He rounded a corner, and as he passed by an alley, he suddenly stopped when a familiar voice said, "Hey," from right next to him.

He immediately spun around, and there, leaning on a wall of a building and smiling at him, was Kitty. She wasn't wearing her jacket that time; instead, she was wearing a black tank top. Duck was able to see that her arm was bandaged up, and there was a small dot of red on the bandage. Other than that, she was still in one piece.

"H-hey," Duck stuttered in reply. "A-are you okay? Did you go to a hospital or something for that?"

"I'm fine, and I can't exactly go to a hospital; they ask questions," Kitty replied with a smirk. "I know how to do an in-field patch job on this, though. When doing a job like this, you need to know how to do some medical stuff in the field. I'll get it fixed up for real when I get back to our base; we have some skilled medics. Well, two, actually, but they get the job done."

"Okay, if you say so... But are you sure you're okay? I mean, that had to hurt..."

"Yeah, it did, but I've had worse." Duck looked at her worriedly. "It's not like there aren't any occupational hazards with this job, and honestly, I got lucky. This could've been a _lot_ worse."

"Yeah, tell me about it..." Duck muttered, thinking back to when he thought she was dead. "...So, now that this is all over, what are you going to do?"

"That's just it; it's not over," Kitty stated seriously. "We may have stopped this particular operation of theirs, but the Fratellanza is still out there. Not _here_ anymore, but they will try again. You'll need to keep your eye out for anything...Fratellanza-y."

"Fratellanza-y?"

"There isn't exactly a word for it!" Kitty exclaimed jokingly. "But seriously, you guys need to know what to look for. There are signs of things that could be the start of Fratellanza activity, and if you stop them quick enough, they won't be a problem. You guys can expect a message of some sort from us in the coming days describing what to look for and what precautions you should take in the future."

"But...why?" Duck asked. "I mean, I know that it would be bad if they ever did anything like this again, but even if they tried, wouldn't you guys, the Nonexistants, be there to help us and warn us?"

"Duck, we can't always be there to help you. Like I said before, our numbers are dwindling; we can't stop them every time, anymore. Also, they know you know about them, now, which makes them want you gone all the more. And besides; aren't _you_ supposed to be the super hero around here?" Kitty asked snidely. "Oh, that reminds me; you guys aren't the only ones out there who were affected by the meteor. There aren't many, but there are a few in the Fratellanza."

"Oh, great," Duck moaned. "Super-powered mafia men! And the garden variety guys are hard enough to deal with!"

Kitty chuckled and shook her head. "You'll manage. There aren't many, and I've only seen three of them myself. We know of a total of four people with powers in the Fratellanza."

"How do you deal with them? I mean, you're a great fighter and all, but…"

"The Fratellanza targets those with powers. They track them down, find them, and if they refuse to join up, deal with them accordingly," Kitty stated as if it were an everyday occurrence. With the Fratellanza, it could've been. "We've managed to save a few. We currently have six people with powers, but one of them is our techie, so he never leaves, and the remaining half of them can barely fight. In this line of work, having powers only gets you so far."

There was a moment of silence between them. Then, Duck said, "So, you never answered my question."

"Oh, yeah? And what's that?"

"What are you going to do now?"

Kitty paused a moment before replying. "I just wanted to deliver that message to you. Now, I'm going to head back to our base. I'll hang out there while my arm heals, and then I'll go out again on another job."

"Oh...so, you can't stay?" Duck asked hesitantly. He wanted to ask where her base was, but he knew she would never answer that.

Kitty smiled and said, "Nope. I still have to get my arm looked at, and I can't sit idle for very long. Don't worry, though; I'll be back. I don't know when, but I can guarantee you that I'll be back."

"But what if you-"

"I don't die that easily," Kitty interrupted, reading his mind. "Don't worry about me; just watch your own back. You'll need to."

Duck sighed and said, "If you say so..." He knew better than to try arguing with her. "Don't you ever wish that we could go back to the old days? When things were simple, and we were just waiting to get adopted instead of trying not to get killed?"

"Every single day," Kitty replied wistfully. "Someday, life _will_ be simple again. I just have to figure out how to end the Fratellanza..."

"Well, we're here to help if you need it," Duck offered earnestly.

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind," Kitty replied with a smile. "Oh, and thanks for not telling the cops about any of this. They would just make our lives herder than they already are, and honestly, they're not ready for the Fratellanza, yet."

"No problem." He looked down at the ground. "And, uh, thanks for, you know, saving us. We're really grateful to you and the rest of your group for all of the help you've given us."

He didn't get a reply, and after a moment, he looked up curiously, and he was only mildly surprised to see that Kitty was gone. He didn't bother looking around for her that time, though; instead, he smiled to himself, turned around, and started heading home.

**A/N: What do you all think of how I wrapped that up? I wasn't sure of how to do it, so I just kinda winged it and hoped for the best.**

**Anyways, thanks to all of my loyal readers for staying with this, and as I stated earlier, I will continue! I'm just not sure how… XD I'll figure something out.**

**R&R!**


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